Pumpkin Picking at Cattows Farm in Leicestershire has been one of our October traditions for well over a decade now, starting out as just a trip to the humble pumpkin patch to pick our carvers and a hot chocolate in the café – to the now hugely popular Halloween Farm event that it is today. It’s been a mega evolution into this Halloween festival, but we’ve largely kept to the original plan over the years. This year however, we’re off to take a look at all they have to offer this spooky season…
Driving into the car-park was a breeze this year, although we definitely got there early doors around 10am, and we were pleased to see that the main entrance to the event had been relocated to a space between the two car fields – meaning less of a walk for everyone no matter where you ended up parking.
Once we headed into the entry tent it was also nice to see that the walkways had been massively upgraded to heavy duty plastic decking, making a huge difference in terms of accessibility and for people with prams and trolleys. I’ve seen this type of flooring in use before at festivals and it has held up well even in torrential downpours, which let’s face it, is a very real risk here in October. Luckily we’re looking at a mostly sunny, crisp Autumn day!
The layout has also had a massive overhaul this year, and it really seems to work better. Everything is much closer together, giving it a much more cohesive attraction feel, and there is a dedicated area for food outlets with seating, and good signposting to all the different areas. Entry itself was incredibly smooth, using the online booking system and QR codes was quick and easy to do, we got our Ultimate Pass wristbands on and headed out to see what we wanted to do first.
Trick or Treat Street
Trick or Treat Street was a real highlight, particularly for our 7 year old who was slightly concerned it was going to be too scary at first. There’s a short walkthrough an enchanted Autumn forest and then a spooky host gives children their trick-or-treat bags and tells them what they need to do and lookout for on the way around the trail.
The first section is blacklit with an incredible neon spray-painted twisting and turning walkway, you could have done a full photo-shoot in just this part! It was really fun winding around and finding little nooks to jump out at each other from, but not to fear – there were no scare actors hiding in this section at all.
The route itself was great, with doors to knock on for sweets and actors who were friendly and playful without being too frightening for the younger visitors. It struck a lovely balance between giving the children a little taste of Halloween spookiness without scarring them for life. I don’t know what I’d do if my child rejected Halloween when it’s at least 90% of my personality…
The little bag of spooky activities, and sweets collected along the way was worth the trip a hundred times over for my small being – she thought the whole thing was fantastic and I think it geared her up to be brave enough for some of the other adventures.
The Halloween Circus
Honestly, the circus was incredible – I cannot gush enough about it. We were completely blown away by just how much they managed to pack into a 45-minute show, and the seating arrangement meant that everyone had a great view, wherever they were sitting inside the big top.
The compère was really funny and charismatic (I was struggling to think who he reminded me of at the time, but looking back I think he had a very Tim Minchin aura) and alongside the dancers he managed to get the whole crowd laughing and clapping along during the intro. We saw two fantastic performances from their talented acro duo, firstly a partner-balance section and later an aerial spinning section that had everyone in awe, but one of the kids’ favourite bits was definitely the Ghost Bedtime clowning skit where they all got to point and scream at the naughty ghost.
Then there was Red, who performed some seriously impressive traditional circus acts. Pulling nails out of her nose, breathing fire, standing on broken glass, lying on a bed of nails and balancing on swords – she was amazing! The kids were absolutely fascinated by her, and I actually loved seeing a traditional sideshow-style act included in the programme. It fitted the spooky theme perfectly, and they were careful to remind everyone not to try any of it at home (which is good because my child immediately said “oh we have long nails at our house don’t we”).
We also loved the BMX tricks with the guys decked out as skeleton riders, but the motorbike flying completely over the arena and landing in an unseen safety bag was the icing on the cake. Sadly I was sat beneath the ramp and therefore completely missed the shot with my camera, sorry!
I genuinely don’t know how they managed to fit so much into such a short show without it ever feeling rushed, and they did such a good job of making sure all of it worked within theme. It was entertaining from beginning to end, with a brilliant mix of comedy, skill, thrills and spooky fun. If there’s one thing I would specifically book tickets for again next year, it’s this circus.
Zombie World
Zombie World was another impressive attraction, with some genuinely creepy sets and an immersive atmosphere, I was consistently blown away that this was all just set up inside a tent. I believe the front desk team radioed ahead to let them know that we had a small child with us, so we didn’t have any actors jumping out at us (or at least, maybe because it was early in the day?) which was super helpful because it turned out to be REALLY creepy in some of those areas. It’s a decently long trail with lots of different themed rooms, including one with a couple of zombies who screamed at the adults in our party, and I can fully imagine how terrifying it would be at the night-time fright event too. There were a LOT of places people could hide throughout!
One thing worth mentioning is that there were a few areas with strobe lighting and flashing effects, which I’m assuming was noted at the entrance somewhere but I didn’t see it. I do think the people on the front desk probably should have had this in their welcome speech as standard, given that there are quite a few disabilities which this would need to be noted for.
We did enjoy collecting the bones and eyeballs along the way, which you had to trade in to get out at the end – a fun little interactive element that gave the kid something distracting to do as we made our way through the trail. Again, in the less busy morning – this would be an absolutely fantastic place to do a spooky photoshoot if you wanted to go in costume!
Roller Disco
The Roller Disco was one we decided not to do this year, but I did pop in to have a look. Nothing majorly spooky about this one but there were a fair few people giving it a whizz around. It looked like a good slick floor, skates and helmets provided, but I think it could have done with a bit more on the music and lighting front to bring it inline with the atmosphere of the other attractions.
Feasting
The food options were really good this year, with options like Greek food, pizzas, loaded fries and burgers, breakfast sandwiches, baked potatoes and even a full on pick and mix sweetie bar in various food trucks around the site. We opted for halloumi gyros, chilli mac & cheese, mini donuts and some epic Cadbury’s hot chocolates (complete with fun pumpkin shaped marshmallows).
Prices felt comparable to what you’d expect at any other festival, and the overall offering was good. My only real wish would be for even more tables and seating, as it can be tricky to find somewhere to sit and eat when the event is busy. The Big Top did have a lot more undercover seating, a great option for when the weather inevitably turns.
Halloween Harvest Ride
Unfortunately, the Haunted Hayride was the one attraction that I felt didn’t live up to last year’s experience, and it’s only really about logistics. They’ve upgraded the little train to larger tractors pulling wagons, which sounds like a great idea in theory. However, the tractors were too big to wind their way through the cornfield, meaning the route had changed significantly. Instead of travelling through the corn, with spooky figures and decorations appearing around corners and popping out from the crops, we were taken across the back of the open pumpkin-picking fields.
There were still spooky figures dotted around and decorations hanging in the trees, but the whole thing felt much less immersive and a little flat. Last year, the scare elements were tucked away in the corn, so you were constantly discovering something new as you turned a corner. This time, we were sitting much higher up and looking down on the figures, which took away a lot of that surprise and atmosphere.
The kids still loved riding in the back of a tractor, so it wasn’t a complete write-off, but I couldn’t help feeling underwhelmed. Compared with last year’s version, it needed a lot more to make it feel like a proper haunted hayride again. I hope they can find a way to bring back some of that close-up, unexpected spookiness in future years.
Lost World of Dinosaurs and Farm Animals
The Dinosaur trail was a really fun walk through the corn, with some awesome animatronic dinosaurs popping out and roaring at us along the way – great for smalls who need a good run around to expend some energy. There was plenty to see and it even included information boards about the dinosaurs for the Jurassic Park millennials, who will never stop wishing for that to become reality.
There were also pigs, goats, and chickens (one of whom was just a complete ball of fluff, amazing) to say hello to in this area, and over near the farm shop were donkeys, goats and alpacas too. This is just another lovely bit of Cattows itself, that our daughter thought was great fun. We didn’t try the mini golf this time as we wanted to get over to the Pumpkins, but it too was woven through the corn maze and there were a lot of happy shrieks coming from that direction!
The Fairground
The fairground had heaps of options, the dodgems was an absolute battleground (as is traditional), the ghost train looked good and there were lots of rides for smaller kids on offer as well. Despite some light goading, the waltzers was a hard pass from me (I just drank that hot chocolate, don’t come for me) but we did have a go at the prize every time hook-a-duck and came back with a plushie galaxy cat, and grabbed a bag of candy floss for the ultimate nostalgia hit.
Although all these things are additional cost treats, the prices were comparable to any other festival or event I’ve attended this year and I do feel that the actual event attractions were more than enough to keep everyone entertained, without you needing to spend more on the fairground if you wanted to avoid that.
The Pumpkin Patch
We then headed over to the pumpkin-picking area, where we had a browse through the baskets of ornamental gourds before exploring the two pumpkin fields. In the tent there’s a lovely hay bale area decorated with pumpkins which is perfect for a quick photo or two, which would also have been useful in rainy weather.
There weren’t quite as many of the ornamentals as last year, it’s clear that the weird weather has taken its toll on the growing season, but the two main pumpkin fields were still full of beautiful, bright orange pumpkins. The sizes were definitely on the smaller side compared with previous years, but they were all bright and beautiful glowing orange orbs in the sunshine.
The pumpkin house, tractor, pickup truck and hay tower were all set up around the fields, providing plenty of lovely photo opportunities and I absolutely loved seeing how many people had come dressed up to take their family photos. Lots of spooky costumes, autumnal outfits, and even one very beautiful witch, all doing their best posing amongst the gourds.
There were wheelbarrows dotted everywhere for people to use, and bags were available to buy alongside your pumpkins to make transporting them home easier. The pumpkin prices were clearly displayed with sizing rings used at the till, making it straightforward to see what you’d be paying. Though you are definitely paying a bit more for your pumpkins here than at your local supermarket, I have to say that year on year my Cattows pumpkins have lasted considerably longer than any I’ve bought elsewhere.
Cattows also leans heavily into the classic ridged deep orange variety, rather than the more smooth yellow supermarket ones – something I really appreciate when putting together my annual display and carving them around Halloween.
One thing I would like to see is a few more photo opportunities around the fields. People were generally respectful of one another and took turns using the displays, which was lovely, but the event has grown so much that some of the popular spots could do with a few more options. The tractor is a prime example – EVERY single child obviously wanted a go at sitting on it!
Food, farm shop and facilities
The farm café was busy, which is lovely to see. In previous years, we’ve visited for the Halloween Afternoon Tea and absolutely loved it – I’d love to book in again at some point, because the food and drinks were delicious, and everything was so well themed. Having had a browse on the website I see that Cattows is also offering Christmas events, so I may have to give those a go later on this year!
The farm shop is also always worth a browse, with lots of exciting seasonal treats to take home alongside a plethora of chutneys and fancy farm fayre. It’s a nice way to round off a visit, especially if you fancy picking up something a little different.
The overall facilities were really good this year too – there was a larger block of portable toilets this time around, and all the ones we used were clean and well attended. Accessible toilets for disabled visitors and baby-changing facilities were available, while the café had its own toilets and there’s a great little children’s play area nearby. I do think that it would also have been helpful to have a second bank of portaloos over near the pumpkin fields and the fairground area, as it’s a bit of a trek around the loop if you are at that end of the event.
The atmosphere and the little things
I really love that this has become an annual tradition for so many people (ourselves included) and that we can embrace lovely things about all of the seasons – instead of just lamenting the end of the summer. It feels as though Cattows and Halloween Farm have managed to strike the perfect balance between Autumn and Halloween, there really is something for everyone.
I will say the one thing I really missed this year though, is the tent full of giant inflatable slides and bouncy castles which I thought was absolutely fantastic value for money in previous years. If I had the planning choice, I’d probably swap the roller disco back for that!
Tickets and value for money
These are the web prices for the rest of the event:
Parking: Free, or you can upgrade to VIP parking for £5. Personally, I think since they’ve made the carpark a bit more accessible and changed the entrance, this isn’t really necessary.
£6 pp – Standard entry to the pumpkin fields.
£29.99 pp – Adventure Pass (This allows you to visit each listed attraction once, and you get a little card that they stamp on your way around).
£44.99 pp – Ultimate Adventure Pass (This allows you to visit each listed attraction multiple times and gives you fast-pass queuing, which isn’t such a big deal earlier on in the day but as it got busier it definitely made a difference).
You can also buy a £14.99 season upgrade meaning you can return to the event throughout the month, this would be good for anyone looking to attend with multiple groups or wanting to do photoshoots and such. You can reserve pumpkins for a £10 credit but in my opinion, this really isn’t necessary at all.
There’s no getting around the fact that prices for everything in the UK have shot up in the last few years and that if you have a larger family this could be a pricey day out, but I do think that your standard entry at £6 is really fantastic value for money when you consider the staffing and infrastructure in place to make it a nice space for visitors. If you’re there for your autumnal photo and your carving pumpkin, you will not leave disappointed I promise you. After that, it’s very easy to pick and choose (and pay on the door) for anything else you’d like to add on in your day. If you’re not up for pre-booking an adventure pass, I would totally recommend getting a standalone ticket for The Circus or Trick-or-Treat Street – as these were our two favourites.
If you are looking at adventure passes, I do think you get a lot of bang for your buck considering the scale of detail and creativity that has gone into the attractions – we arrived at 10am and didn’t leave until 4pm, so it really was a full day of doing fun things.
One day I’ll brave the night-time scary ‘Halloween Farm After Dark’ but as always, Cattows and Halloween Farm have been spectacular in facilitating my autumn wishes – it’s a red-hot recommend from me. There are still limited tickets available for the rest of the month, so don your best October outfit and get out there – there are pumpkins to be picked!
https://www.thehalloweenfarm.co.uk
