Upstate NY pageant makes checklist of greatest Halloween festivals in US

History, however make it spooky.

That’s the recipe that has earned a unusual pageant in one in every of Upstate New York’s most charming cities a spot on an inventory of America’s prime Halloween celebrations.

The Days of Incandescence, a three-day pageant in Corning that invitations guests to journey again to the Eighties, has been dubbed the most effective Halloween occasions within the U.S. by Time Out, a world journey web site.

The occasion in culturally-rich Corning made the 12-event checklist alongside the Thriller Parade in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanters in Chicago, Illinois.

The Days of Incandescence isn’t your common Halloween soiree.

The illuminating pageant celebrates the necessary half Corning Inc. (beforehand known as “Corning Glass Works”) performed in serving to Thomas Edison create incandescent lamps, the ancestor of contemporary gentle bulbs.

“If you love Halloween for the lore, rather than the gore, this one is for you,” Time Out wrote in its roundup.

The 2025 version of The Days of Incandescence takes place from Thursday, Oct. 23 to Saturday, Oct. 25. And the story on the coronary heart of the pageant is one half historical past, one half supernatural story.

The truth: Corning Glass Works created the glass envelopes that Edison used for his revolutionary gentle bulbs. In 1880, the inventor named the then-small Southern Tier glass firm the only provider of the “glass envelopes” for his incandescent lamps — a pivotal second for Corning Inc.

The barely spooky legend: Historical accounts counsel a store boy playfully blew the proper bubble for Edison’s gentle bulb.

With the boy’s identification disputed, a legend was born. The enjoyable, fictional story — detailed in “The Legend of the Gathers: Protectors of the Light,” a youngsters’s image guide — imagines a phantom boy really blew that first, history-changing bubble.

Corning embraces each historical past and the supernatural throughout The Days of Incandescence, based on Explore Steuben, Steuben County’s tourism bureau.

Actors donning interval costumes stroll via Corning’s Gaffer District throughout the pageant, main guided night strolling excursions and lording over classic video games. A separate, spookier tour guides courageous guests via excursions of native cemeteries.

Visitors are inspired to put on costumes to the pageant.

“Nowhere else in the world will you find the family-friendly spookiness of Halloween celebrated quite like The Days of Incandescence,” Explore Steuben wrote in a information launch.

The pageant will even characteristic:

• A 12-stop “Libations Crawl” for adults
• Pumpkin carving demonstrations from Guinness World Record-carver Eric Jones
• An look by the Headless Horseman
• Face portray
• Horse and wagon rides
• Jugglers and magicians
• Blacksmith demonstrations
• Food, music and distributors

Much of the enjoyable will happen on Saturday, Oct. 25, in Corning’s Riverfront Centennial Park and celebrated Centerway Square.

Admission to The Days of Incandescence is free. To study extra in regards to the pageant, see a full schedule and buy tickets for the pageant’s particular excursions, customer Explore Steuben’s website.