Although fall isn’t necessarily apparent in Miami, Coconut Grove made sure families could still enjoy a pumpkin patch with the 75 degree weather gracing the city. At the Coconut Grove Pumpkin Patch, locals could browse through pumpkin patches, a corn stalk and hay bale maze, a beer bar and face painting. With multiple photo opportunities and cooler weather, Coconut Grove was filled with locals enjoying a Miami fall.
Event Coordinator Ali Huber explained that the festival might have to change locations for its sixth year in 2017, due to such a large turnout.
“Saturday we had about 10,000 people show up and on Sunday, we ran out of wristbands to give meaning that 20,000 people were here,” she said. According to the Pumpkin Patch event, there were over 5,000 pumpkins to pick from, all ranging in size and color.
Throughout the festival, kids could entertain themselves with various activities, including carnival rides, dressing up scarecrows and a maze made out of hay bale. In an attempt to scare the kids in the maze, some adults would scream “Boo!” through the hay. The atmosphere was filled with screams and laughter.
The main stage had exciting performances throughout the festival. Dance teams from Miami Beach Senior High and Dance Tech Studios Miami performed dance routines on Saturday and Sunday respectively. There were also acts from Area Stage theater and the Miami Children’s Museum’s acting troupe.
While the children could go on the rides, adults also had the opportunity to enjoy the day with the Pumpkin Beer Bar. Featuring fall-related flavors, those over 21 years of age could enjoy a cold beer while the rest of the festival grounds teemed with kids running around.
Families could enjoy picking out pumpkins and take photos with several backgrounds set up, some made out of hay bale and surrounded by pumpkins and some with sunflowers. These stations showed that a new season had landed in Miami.
words and pictures_thalia garcia, alina zerpa.
Thalia Garcia is a junior majoring in Software Engineering. She’s from Miami and wants to eventually start her own software engineering business or work in animation! She loves pastelitos and café con leche.
Alina Zerpa is a senior majoring in journalism and psychology, a major Oreo enthusiast and spends way too much time on Tumblr.