BRADFORD BID is helping children carve out some Halloween fun with a new seasonal event in the city centre.
The Mini Pumpkin-Carving Festival will take place on Tuesday, October 29, on the pedestrian area near to The Broadway shopping centre entrance and The Light cinema.
The Business Improvement District has teamed up with Hebden Bridge-based creative arts organisation Sand In Your Eye to stage the event, with pumpkin-sculpting workshops to run hourly from 11am. The last workshop will start at 3pm.
Visitors will be given the chance to have a go at creating their own pumpkin masterpieces as well as watch the Sand In Your Team carve amazing sculptures.
Pumpkins will be available to purchase or you can take your own along with you. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
Those who join in are also being urged to dress up in their spookiest Halloween costumes to add to the atmosphere.
Ian Ward, chairman of the business-levy funded BID, said: “This will be a fabulous fun-packed event.
“The Sand In Your Eye team devise some fabulous creations and they really help children to let their imaginations run wild as they come up with their own designs.”
BID manager Jonny Noble added: “This is another part of the BID’s campaign to help bring Bradford alive by organising attractions that bring people into the city centre.
“Halloween these days wouldn’t be the same without some spooky pumpkin carving, be they witches, monsters or ghouls, and these highly-skilled sculptors take it to the next level and really help these creations come to life!”
Many people wrongly believe pumpkin-carving began as an American tradition but it was actually taken to the United States by Irish immigrants who started carving “jack-o’-lanterns” out of turnips at Halloween in the 19th century. Something similar also took place in Somerset and the Scottish Highlands. Vegetable carving has taken place across the world for centuries; the Maoris in New Zealand were carving vegetable lamps 700 years ago, for instance.
