Celebrate Highwood

10/22/2026

🎄 ELVES, IT’S ALMOST TIME… 🎄

Highwood’s 8th Annual Elf Invasion Pub Crawl is coming back on December 5th, and if you’ve been before, you already know this is a night you DON’T want to miss. 👀🎅

Grab your friends, start planning those elf costumes and get ready to get ELFED UP as we take over Downtown Highwood! 🎄🍻

We’ll be visiting some of Highwood’s favorite spots for live music, food & drink specials, raffle prizes and plenty of holiday fun.

And here’s the important part…

EARLY BIRD TICKETS OPEN MONDAY, OCTOBER 26 AT 12 AM CST!

Save $5 with promo code EARLYBIRD — available for the first 100 tickets only!

This event has sold out in the past, so if you want in, you’ll want to be ready when tickets drop. 👀

📅 Saturday, December 5, 2026
⏰ 2 PM – Bar Close
📍 Downtown Highwood

🎟️ Get ready to grab your tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/8th-annual-elf-invasion-pub-crawl-tickets-2003677905553

10/12/2026

10/05/2026

WE MADE IT, HIGHWOOD!!!! 🎃❤️🎃

What. A. Weekend.

On behalf of our entire volunteer Board, THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this weekend what it was.

There is something pretty incredible about watching thousands and thousands of people pour into our little city. Our streets are full. Our restaurants and bars are packed. People walk into businesses they’ve never been to before. Families make traditions here. And people who may have never had a reason to visit Highwood get to experience what makes this place so special. 💕💕💕

That is a really big part of why we do this.

A festival this size asks a lot of a small community, and we are so grateful to everyone who helps us pull it off. Our businesses and residents who roll with a little extra craziness for the weekend. The City of Highwood, Public Works and Highwood Police Department. Our sponsors and partners. Our performers and vendors. Our incredible volunteers. And every person who shows up and brings this festival to life.

Seeing Highwood absolutely FULL of people eating, laughing, dancing, carving pumpkins and making memories together is pretty special. 🍽 🥂💃🎃

When you’re busy making a weekend like this happen, you don’t always get to see all of those little moments happening around you. So now that the pumpkins are carved and the streets are a little quieter, we’d love to see Pumpkin Fest through your eyes.

Share your photos, tag us and tell us your favorite part of this year’s Fest.

Thank you for showing up for Pumpkin Fest. And thank you for showing up for Highwood. 🎃

With so much gratitude,

The Celebrate Highwood volunteer board 🧡🧡🧡

10/04/2026

🕯️This was Highwood last night! 🕯️

There's still time to get out here and be a part of this awesome event! Fest ends at 9 PM, and if you carved a pumpkin you can take it from the wall at that time! 🎃 🎃 🎃

10/04/2026

🎃 A huge shout-out to sponsors ComEd and Demuth, Inc for sponsoring a pumpkin house for all to enjoy this weekend! 🏠

We are so grateful for them and all of our other sponsors that allow us to “house” our pumpkins throughout the Fest. 🧡🍂

Our sponsors ROCK!🤘✨

10/04/2026

We're back again today with more fun in store on our last day of the 17th annual American Place Casino Great Highwood Pumpkin Fest! 🧡🧡🧡

The schedule for today is:
🧡12 PM - Festival Opens - Food and Artisan Craft Vendors, Community Pumpkin Carving, & more!

🧡12-9 PM - Live Music at American Place Casino Everts Park Pavilion and J. Blanton Main Stage

🧡1-9 PM - Carnival Rides & Games

🧡1-9 PM Don’t miss the Fields Auto Group Speedway, where you can take the wheel at the NASCAR style micro racing track

🧡12 PM - Pet Costume Contest at Culver’s “Curdtoberfest” located at City Hall Parking Lot - Sign up for - Pet Costume Contest(opens in new tab)

🧡1 PM - Kids Costume Contest at Culver’s “Curdtoberfest” located at City Hall Parking Lot

🧡2 PM – Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest at at Culver’s “Curdtoberfest” located at City Hall Parking Lot, sponsored byBENT FORK BAKERY

🧡9 PM - Festival Closes

10/03/2026

Our incredible non- profit beneficiary SALT: Service and Learning Together is in Everts Park and by the post office with fun activities for kids! Join them! ☺️☺️☺️

10/03/2026

🎃❤️ A huge thank you to Porsche Exchange of Highland Park for always supporting Pumpkin Fest and other Celebrate Highwood events! 🧡🍂

🚘✨ Be sure to check out their beautiful red Macan EV located right in front of the main stage, too! ❤️

10/03/2026

We LOVE this piece from WGN TV! Check out the behind the scenes look at what goes on before the weekend officially begins!
🧡🎃🎡🤗

This weekend, Highwood will light up with tens of thousands of jack-o’-lanterns for the Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival.

Read more: https://wgntv.com/news/features/how-highwood-prepares-for-its-pumpkin-festival/