Things to do in Los Angeles on Sunday

Stroll through a mile-long trail filled with all things pumpkins, including an illuminated forest of jack-o’-lanterns, during Descanso Gardens’ annual Carved. For three weeks this fall (Oct 4–30), the event lines a loop of the botanical garden with pumpkins in all sorts of forms: as a sea monster rising from a pond, in thick clusters on the ground and cobbled together into a house. For the 2024 edition, Carved is adding a beer garden on the main lawn plus chainsaw-carved wood spirits. The garden’s newly refreshed model trains will also be illuminated during the event. Tickets ($35–$45; kids $25–$30) go on sale August 13 at 10am, though members can grab them starting August 6. Last year, Carved slightly reconfigured the route, with an expanded Día de los Muertos ofrenda altar near the entrance (you can leave your own remembrance photo) and a new, larger area for the neon-hued tangle of the Rhizome installation. Otherwise, there were two main areas of jack-o’-lanterns. The first is a forested section lined with expressively carved (but fake) pumpkins, some of which have been arranged into wonderfully whimsical characters (a crow-like scarecrow and a pumpkin holding its own head, among them). Meanwhile, there’s a pavilion in the rose garden with real ones whose designs are inspired by pop culture characters (plus a station where you can see them being carved). There are a few familiar sights if you’ve ever attended Descanso’s other holiday tradition, Enchanted, but tweaked for H

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings to LEVEL in Downtown L.A. Known for excellent film choices and a steady supply of snacks and booze, Rooftop Cinema Club is your snazzy, comfortable and less stressful alternative to other outdoor movie screenings. You don’t even need to bring your own camping chair—Rooftop Cinema Club provides you with your very own comfy lawn chair (with optional blankets for purchase to up the coziness). And instead of listening to the movie over loudspeakers, you’ll get a set of wireless headphones so you never have to miss a word. Find the full schedule on their site, or in our outdoor movie calendar.

This Denver-originated experience returns to L.A. with hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns lining a pathway at the Whittier Narrows. Though you can pay a little extra to park closer, there is free parking available at the park if you’re up for a little bit longer of a walk.

This spectacular exhibition from the Icelandic–Danish artist brings a new series of optical installations to MOCA’s Little Tokyo location. Don’t let the reflective, colorful pieces fool you into thinking this is some run-of-the-mill “immersive” exhibit: Olafur Eliasson’s works invite you to admire the everyday miracles of physics that shape how we see the world. The towering, mirror-lined stacks that fill the entrance of “OPEN” bring the outside in, as the warehouse-style Geffen Contemporary’s skylights create infinite spaces and mini worlds out of the sun and sky. The surprisingly analog optics behind them can be truly sublime: Gently moving water has a pair of pieces appear as shimmery landscapes, mirrors turn tubing into floating rings that trail into a black void and a simple array of pendants produce colorful flares against a screen. These aren’t pieces you’re meant to disappear into; instead, they provide a lens for the enviornment around us. You’ll need a timed ticket ($18) to see “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN.” Look for reservations on the first Friday of the month, from 5 to 8pm, for free admission.

This haunted Griffith Park hayride once again returns to the mid-’80s fictitious town of Midnight Falls, which borrows a little bit of the road culture of Sons of Anarchy and the isolation of Twin Peaks. The Griffith Park tradition, which has been running for 16 years now, centers on a relatively lengthy hayride, which runs on select nights from September 20 to November 2. The premise: A witch has summoned creatures that’ve hidden themselves among Halloween decorations in the town’s foothills. This year’s event promises the addition of escape games and a seance. The event’s various other attractions will be centered around the jack-o’-lantern–filled Midnight Falls Town Square, with a Janelle Monáe-headlined party manor as well axe throwing, water balloon-based paintball and the Hellbilly Halloween maze. Can I wear a costume? No. Costumes, facepaint and props are not allowed. How much is parking at the Haunted Hayride? Parking is free but limited in the trio of nearby lots (Merry-Go-Round lots 1, 2 and 3). On Fridays, Saturdays and on Halloween, you can take advantage of a shuttle from the northwest corner of the much larger L.A. Zoo parking lot.

Its past installments have found attendees stealthing their way through a Victorian home and embarking on a Blade Runner-esque bounty hunt. And now this celebrated immersive horror theater event will return for an event at a new location, a 133-year-old castle near USC. Delusion, an interactive seasonal event that combines elements of immersive theater with a more story-based approach to a walk-through haunted house, will take over the Stimson House, a recognizable red brick mansion built in 1891 in University Park. “The Red Castle,” which opens on September 20 and runs just past Halloween to November 3, puts you in the role of a possibly-superpowered asylum patient under the care of a spiraling psychologist who’s attempting to resurrect his deceased wife. Director and action coordinator Jon Braver, who hatched Delusion in 2011, has again teamed up with the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride producers Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group for a “choose your path” staging in which your choices will impact the story progression. Ticketing info is still coming soon (last year’s event was $90, for reference), though we do know there’ll be a VIP tier that let’s you play a part in the performance and access a private bar.

Every Sunday you can find dozens of food vendors at this market at ROW DTLA, with a mix of much-loved pop-ups and future foodie stars. Look out for this year’s new vendors, including Basket Taco Co, Battambong Barbecue and Taste of the Pacific.

Walk across the grounds of the scenic King Gillette Ranch as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Nights of the Jack returns with an on-foot, mile-long trail this year (with food trucks and a “Spookeasy,” too).  For 2024, Nights of the Jack will bring back last year’s new additions—a Día de Los Muertos scene, lantern art and a “magic forest” area—as well as flower field and pumpkin slide.  Timed tickets are required each night. As is the case with all similar experiences, they’re not cheap and fluctuate ($27–$50, plus fees) depending on the day of the week and time of night. Expect to spend an hour to an hour and a half there, though that could double on weekends (and closer to Halloween) when the entry crowds and food truck lines tick up.

Go pumpkin picking in the pines as this Halloween-themed month of activities hits a perennially-Christmas Lake Arrowhead amusement park. On weekends in October, SkyPark at Santa’s Village hosts its Pumpkins in the Pines activities, which—you guessed it—sees pumpkins and hay bales covering the grounds of the park. Though the park is open select days during the week, the Hallowen activities are limited to Saturdays and Sundays. That’s when you’ll typically find pumpkin picking and painting, cookie decorating, a puppet and magic show, an after-dark light show and trick-or-treating. Reservations aren’t required, but you can secure a better rate by buying tickets in advance. Also, just a heads up that some activities like cookie decorating and face painting cost a few bucks extra.

As you might expect, the Getty has a sizable slate of free PST Art exhibitions this fall, and this one is easily the largest and most notable. “Lumen” takes a multi-faith approach to how astronomy and optics impacted art and religion in the Middle Ages—in other words, you’ll find illuminated Hebrew Bibles and a Byzantine chandelier alongside an Islamic astrolabe from the 1200s and a 12th-century manuscript that documented how monks used constellations to tell time. The Getty ties some contemporary pieces into the exhibition, as well, including Fred Eversley’s purple-hued parabolic lens and one of Anish Kapoor’s void-like Vantablack sculptures. These current-day pieces extended outside of the gallery, as well: You’ll find a fuzzy, meditative sculpture from Light and Space artist Helen Pashgian in the museum’s north pavilion, as well as Charles Ross’s array of rainbow-scattering prisms in the entrance hall. Make sure to scope out an eye-popping pair of shows in the west pavilion, too: “Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography,” which features abstract prints from artists like László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray, as well as “Sculpting with Light: Contemporary Artists and Holography,” a collection of portraits and landscapes that appear to float within their frames. Both are open through November 24.