CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – After a one-year hiatus, a fairly new Halloween tradition returns to the University of Virginia with “The Great Rotumpkin,” according to UVA Arts.
Matt Weber, then a UVA student, and the school’s vice provost for the arts, Jody Kielbasa, were trying to find ways to bring some cheer back to the pandemic-quieted Grounds following the COVID pandemic of 2020.
Weber, who is now the Chief Creative Officer in the Office of the President, told Cville Right Now, at a time when outdoor activities were deemed safer than indoor, they took inspiration from the university’s bicentennial in 2017. That year, a projection show was shown on The Lawn and on The Rotunda, highlighting various moments in UVA history.
The projections included slave laborers building the Rotunda and the Academical Village, and recreated the Great Rotunda Fire of 1895. The project was executed by Charlottesville artist Jeff Dobrow and the AV Company.
“We thought of, what if we could have Dobrow do a projection of the Rotunda as a giant pumpkin and other ideas formed around that?” Weber said. “And taking a page out of the Charles Schulz Peanuts special, we thought of The Great Rotumpkin. The building kind of had that type of shape to begin with.”
From that, Dobrow began thinking of other scary, Halloween-appropriate vignettes. The first show happened in 2021. The vignettes moved in context with the design of the Rotunda and with the accompaniment of scary music.
The next year, they did the show and more people came, the crowd approaching 10,000 in 2024.
However, in 2025, the UVA didn’t hold the event.
“We heard from a lot of people who were disappointed,” Weber said. “It was during the Virginia Film Festival last year which takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we were of the mind last year we just couldn’t do it. This year, we were determined it was going to come back.”
Not only is it back, Weber said Dobrow has added some new vignettes this year that Weber would not disclose, and what has been 5-to-7 minutes loops will be about 10 minutes this year.
The shows begin Thu., Oct. 29 and run each night through Halloween night from 7-to-11 p.m.
“I just love presenting The Great Rotumpkin every Halloween,” Kielbasa told Cville Right Now. “It has been great fun to establish a new tradition for UVA and the Charlottesville community that compliments the longtime tradition of Trick or Treat on the lawn and brings the community together.
“To see so many students, families, and young children experiencing it together is truly rewarding and a lot of fun,” he said. “The sense of wonder that projection artist Jeff Dobrow creates each year and the fun of the creatures from our annual Festival of the Moving Creature wandering through the crowds has made this a must-see event each year.”
Weber said he’s excited that other traditions are building around it. People who come can make wooden pumpkin ornaments that can be decorated with paint, markers, and stickers. There’s cookies, hot chocolate, and Día de Los Muertos crafts.
