The Summer’s Biggest Scarecrow Festival Now Live Online

This year's Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival is going ahead, but online, so you can still enjoy a virtual festival.

The UK’s biggest and best annual scarecrow festival (probably!) has risen to the Covid challenge by creating a new way to experience the best of the festival online from Saturday 8^th August, when the real Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival would have commenced. Although the 9-day spectacle of fun and fabulous scarecrows will not be taking place in the idyllic Yorkshire Dales village of Kettlewell, the thousands of devotees can put the kettle on and follow a virtual scarecrow trail, make the famous village hall cakes and enjoy a whole lot more without leaving home, at www.kettlewellscarecrows.uk

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival has attracted literally hundreds of thousands of visitors to its annual festival over the last 25 years, come rain or shine, and has only had to cancel one other time, during the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001. Attracting over 10,000 visitors each year, Kettlewell’s Scarecrow Committee reluctantly concluded they had no choice but to cancel this summer’s event, but they were determined to create something really special for all the loyal followers to enjoy online instead.

Drawing on the wealth of local talent and expertise in this tiny rural community, Kettlewell Virtual Scarecrow Festival went live on Saturday 8^th August, providing fun for all ages, with additional content being released throughout the week.

• True to the real thing, a virtual trail of scarecrows takes online visitors around the village to view pop up pictures of scarecrows with clues to find the secret word. There will even be prizes!
• As another highlight of the festival is always the awesome homemade cakes in Kettlewell village hall, those lovely bakers have also created recipe cards to print out and bake some of the favourites at home.
• Parents can keep children occupied with a variety of fun scarecrow crafts to make, puzzles and pictures to colour in, while a specially created joke book is sure to raise or giggle - or groan - or two.
• There will even be musical performances by Buckden Singers, story readings, a gallery of pictures from the last 25 years, and the chance to order a colourful calendar for 2021, with pictures contributed by the children of Kettlewell School.

Year after year, Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival has raised many thousands of pounds for the three vital village causes of Kettlewell School, Kettlewell Village Hall and St Mary’s Church, as well as many other community groups. Without the festival this year, all the beneficiaries will be hit hard by the loss of this vital funding - like so many other charities throughout the Covid crisis. For those who love Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival and would like to offer their support to this Dales community, online visitors will also have the option to make a donation on the website, or support the local food bank.

On behalf of Kettlewell Scarecrow Committee, the Chair Melanie Denyer comments, “We were so sad we had to cancel the festival, but we’re a small village community and the health of both our visitors and our neighbours was too important to risk. But with so much moving online during lockdown, it made perfect sense for us to pull out all the stops to create a really fun, interactive virtual festival you can access through our website. We hope our fans will enjoy at least a taste of Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival this August until we can come back bigger and better in 2021. Who knows? We may even find new fans from across the world!”