Tulleys Farm’s Pumpkin Festival is the perfect day out to get you into the spooky spirit (Image: Ellen Jenne)
Halloween feels different now I’m knocking on the doors of 30, but my memories of those gone by have been vastly different. Childhood was full of trick or treating around my road, my university years were spent celebrating a Halloween birthday, and now, in my ripe old years, it’s about creating a sense of whole nostalgia.
I’ve never overly bought into the American culture surrounding Halloween, even less so as an adult (what the hell is a Boo Basket?). One thing that will never change is the art around pumpkins. Last weekend, I bought into the Halloween culture just a little bit more than usual, visiting one of the most famous pumpkin patches and festivals in the UK.
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Discover hundreds of different pumpkin varieties – pumpkins for days (Image: Ellen Jenne)
Tulley’s Pumpkin Farm in West Sussex has a long history of celebrating all things autumn and Halloween. Each year it plays host to Tulley’s Pumpkin Festival, Tulley’s Pumpkin Nights, and Shocktober Fest.
Shocktober Fest was a big thing when I was a teenager, along with Thorpe Park’s Fright Night, with swathes of friends trekking across county lines to scream into the late night. Tulley’s Farm has been knocking about for a long time, because when I told my mum I was heading to the Pumpkin Festival, she gasped, telling me that it was a place she used to visit with her parents in her younger years. Now that must mean it’s legendary.
Two Irish friends wanted to really get into the Halloween spirit, and since I’m their local London tour guide, I happily ferried us away from the city with their Golden Retriever, Millie, for a rainy afternoon in a muddy, pumpkin-laden field. The constant pelting of rain and thick grey skies really added to the autumnal experience.
We were in full ‘Millennial’ mode (Image: Ellen jenne)
The Pumpkin Festival is a concoction of whole British farms and Colonial America – a la Salem Witches Trials, overflowing with hundreds, if not thousands, of different varieties of pumpkins and squash. Have you ever seen a star-shaped pumpkin? Well, now you can.
You’ll find knobbly ones, wrinkly ones, green ones, white ones, big ones, small ones, stripey ones. They’ve got the lot. They are pumpkin-mad.
There’s a whole field dedicated to getting the perfect pumpkin patch Instagram shot, with rows upon rows of vibrant orange pumpkins. Over 600,000 seeds are planted over 100 acres of land to produce one million pumpkins and gourds for the festival.
It’s the perfect place to tire out children or four legged friends while you mill about amongst the field. Personally, I preferred looking through the bounty of pumpkins in the garden centre/pumpkin-village.
You can buy as many as you want, and plenty of people were ferrying them around in wheelbarrows. Price depends on size, and can cost as little as £1 for the most unusual variety.
We behaved like true Millennials, making sure that Millie was the star of the show, taking photos of her like parents do with their babies and toddlers. She loved it, I’m sure.
Alongside the pumpkin patch lies the Americana-styled village, with stereotypical Yank street food, a dive bar covered in memorabilia that shouts “USA! USA!”, a ferris wheel, and a faux graveyard display painful spooky dad jokes. The whole set up is part of the gimmick, to help transport you from dreary West Sussex to Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. You have to laugh at it. But really, it’s all part of the fun.
The Pumpkin Bar is a great place to seek shelter, and trust me, you’ll probably need it. There are also plenty of food options, however my choice of fries with cheese sauce probably wasn’t the best one. I should’ve gone for the build your own crumble or DIY s’mores.
It’s the perfect place to get you and the family in the mood for spooky season. Tulleys offer a whole experience for little and big kids. It was my first experience at a pumpkin patch as an adult, and despite looking like a drowned rat from the moment we arrived, it was the perfect way to spend a weekend.
Tulleys impressed my friends so much that they want to do the two other Halloween experiences next year. There’s something out of the ordinary for all the family to enjoy, even the four-legged kind.
Tulleys Farm’s Pumpkin Festival Day time tickets for adults (over 14) and children (from two to 13) are priced between £8 and £13.95. Carers go free. For Tulleys’ Pumpkin Nights, prices range from £11.95 and £19.95 for both adults and children.