This year Pierce is hosting the largest Halloween Harvest Festival in all of Southern California, now featuring an expanded six-acre corn maze.
When you are at the Harvest Festival you can feel Fall coming, even in the 95 degree heat.
“This is the one time of year when we raise enough [money], that we actually support the farm throughout the rest of the year,” said the Pierce Farm Center Director Robert McBroom.
At the festival the food selection, offering everything from funnel cake to barbeque to roasted corn, is provided by several different catering trucks.
The Farm Market sells vegetables grown at Pierce, and now they are selling pumpkins from Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch.
“We came last year to buy a pumpkin, and thought it would be nice again this year,” Kelly Shmueli said as she watched her son look enviously on at the other kids riding the train.
Families come and pick out their own pumpkins from the patch while the kids get shaved Hawaiian Ice and run around with red and blue mouths.
A covered arts and crafts tent, featuring a huge bounce tent, is chaotic, filled with children running around in the shade with paint. There is also a carousel, a mini-train, and a rickety, fun tractor pulled ride.
For the older crowd there is a corn maze, mountain climbing, and live bands performing. The live bands are a change from the usual country music they have playing in the background at the festival.
The new corn maze was cut with a scythe using GPS technology. The designs are formed, entered into the system and then the corn is cut into shape.
At night the Harvest Festival transforms into the Frightfair Screampark.
Children’s laughter is replaced by the screams of classmates and others.
Frightfair offers three haunts: the Factory of Nightmares Maze, the Creatures of the Corn Haunted Trail, and the Insane Reaction maze.
They have thousands of costumes available and the actors had to audition to get their roles in the haunts.
Robert McBroom would suggest Frightfair to any,” College student that wants to get the shit scared out of them.”
Tickets for either the Frightfair or the Harvest Festival are $5 per person, with special deals for the different activities.
For information or tickets call (818) 999-6300 ext. 22, or visit www.halloweenharvestfestival.com
