500 Luminaries Turn Copp Family Park Into an Enchanted Forest for One Night

500 Luminaries Turn Copp Family Park Into an Enchanted Forest for One Night Oct. 2, when one of Groton’s woodland trails will glow after dark for the annual Luminaria Walk.

The Friday evening event transforms an easy, one-mile loop at Copp Family Park with 500 illuminated luminaries, creating a trail through the woods that’s more autumn enchantment than haunted attraction. Along the route, walkers will encounter live local entertainment and a special performance of spirited witch dancing.

The walk runs from 6 to 8 p.m., catching the transition from the last light of an October evening into darkness.

And there’s a second purpose behind all those lights: proceeds benefit the Groton Parks Foundation and its work supporting recreational projects in town.

A Different Way to Experience Copp Family Park

Copp Family Park is normally a daytime destination.

The town-owned property at 821 Gold Star Highway encompasses just over 227 acres of mature woodland, wetlands, streams, fields and an extensive trail network. Groton’s 2025 stewardship plan also notes remnants of the property’s past, including an old farmhouse foundation and former fields gradually returning to nature.

The Town of Groton acquired the land from the Copp family in 1988 through a combination purchase-and-gift arrangement intended to preserve the property for public open space and recreation.

Today, its network of trails ranges from smooth and relatively level paths to rockier routes through woods and mountain laurel. The park is also home to Central Bark dog park.

For the Luminaria Walk, organizers aren’t sending families onto the more challenging sections.

They’ve selected an easy, flat, family-friendly one-mile loop and are lining it with hundreds of lights.

500 Lights Through the Woods

A luminaria is wonderfully simple: a small light enclosed within a translucent container, traditionally a paper bag, producing a soft glow rather than the concentrated beam of a flashlight.

One isn’t particularly dramatic.

Five hundred are another matter.

Spread along a wooded trail after sunset, the individual points of light become a glowing pathway, illuminating the edges of the forest without eliminating the darkness beyond them.

That distinction is part of what separates this event from October’s haunted trails.

Nobody is advertising chainsaws, jump scares or monsters hiding behind trees. The idea is to experience the woods after dark in a way families normally can’t, with the trail itself becoming the attraction.

The organizers are adding entertainment along the route, including what may be the evening’s most unusual feature: witch dancing.

The special performance brings a little Halloween theatricality into the woods without turning the walk into a full-scale scare attraction.

For younger children — or adults who enjoy October but would rather skip being chased through a haunted house — that may be exactly the right balance.

A Walk That Helps Build the Next Park Project

The Luminaria Walk is also a fundraiser for the Groton Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting improvements to recreational opportunities in the community.

That connection to Copp Family Park goes back decades.

In 2002, Connecticut authorized a $65,000 grant-in-aid to the Groton Parks Foundation for design, permitting and construction of an entrance and parking lot at Copp Family Park. More than two decades later, the foundation continues raising money for recreational improvements in Groton.

Every admission to Friday’s walk goes toward that larger mission.

Adults are $10, children ages 8 and older are $5, and children under 8 attend free. Tickets can be purchased at the gate or reserved in advance.

Those who can’t attend can also make a tax-deductible donation directly to the foundation.

Two Hours, One October Night

Unlike many of the season’s attractions, this isn’t something running every weekend until Halloween.

The Luminaria Walk happens one night only.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, the familiar trails of Copp Family Park become something different — 500 lights leading families through a mile of October woods, with music and entertainment appearing along the way.

Then the lights come down and Copp returns to being a woodland park.

For two hours, though, the forest gets to glow.

More information is available at the Event Website link below. To register in advance, click the Event Registration link below.

Details

Event: Luminaria Walk at Copp Family Park
Date: Friday, Oct. 2, 2026
Time: 6–8 p.m.
Location: Copp Family Park
Address: 821 Gold Star Highway, Groton, CT 06340
Trail: Easy, flat, family-friendly one-mile loop
Experience: 500 luminaries, live local entertainment and a special witch-dancing performance
Admission: Adults $10; children ages 8 and older $5; children under 8 free
Tickets: Pay at the gate or register online
Beneficiary: Groton Parks Foundation
Contact: Groton Parks & Recreation, 860-536-5680
Email: parksrec@groton-ct.gov

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.