Sunnyfields Farm has expanded its record-breaking Halloween pumpkin attraction with a new ghoulish indoor experience and increased local food retail, as the family-run site in Totton, Hampshire, prepares for another season of high visitor numbers.
The farm has broken its own Guinness World Record for this type of display, featuring 10,000 pumpkins and squashes arranged in a spectacular mosaic of Sir David Attenborough. The artwork, spread over a slope into a pyramid design, was chosen through a social media poll.
New Dark Harvest experience
A new indoor, walk-through experience called Dark Harvest has been built on the farm's site, offering a more ghoulish getaway resistant to rain and wind. It includes spooky clowns, scary foggy mazes, a DJ and a waterfall.
Beyond the immediate thrills, customers can grab a wheelbarrow and stock up on the produce—formally classified as fruits because of their seeds—throughout the season. Carvings are best composted, while local pig farms benefit from leftovers.
Visitor numbers and pricing
As uncertain times drive public interest in the uncanny, the farm's October Pumpkin Time outweighs Christmas, drawing over 90,000 visitors, mostly within a 25-minute drive time. Tickets are from £7.50 and specifically priced to be as affordable as possible.
All year there's a café, butchery and shop selling over 100 local products, including a large organic selection and eco-refills for milk and washing liquids.
Family history and growth
Started by Ian and Sarah Nelson 36 years ago, who met while working in Africa, the farm got going in farming back home thanks to a £1,000 Prince's Trust (now King's Trust) grant that funded their first tractor. Now son Tom takes the lead.
Making a living in agriculture is harder than ever, so "you have to be as versatile as a Swiss Army knife, our flat organisational structure enables quick decisions and planning long term," he explains.
In the last four years, sales of meat produced by local farms have grown 25 percent annually, while the scalable and inspired model adopted by the Nelsons a decade ago—after they did a display that struck a chord with a few thousand pumpkins—has led to healthy returns. A £4 million turnover is forecast for 2026/27 and £5 million for 2028, as Pumpkin Time delivers 40 percent of revenues and almost all of Sunnyfields' profit. The majority has been reinvested over the years into physical infrastructure, maximising the site's space and visual opportunities.
Trade diversity and employment
With active trading doing the heavy lifting money-wise and the Nelsons acutely aware about resilience, trade diversity is a priority. A team of 30 is complemented by 150 seasonal hires, including specialist scare actors contributing to Dark Harvest.
"Over the years we have given over 500 local young people their first start in the world of work," adds Tom, now working on new events and whose culinary preference is for a variety of winter squash with flesh that, when baked, separates into spellbinding noodle-like strands.
