Next Festival
12 - 20 August 2023

Latest News from Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival

Kettlewell Scarecrows are descending
12th - 20th August 2023

Kettlewell Scarecrows are descending
12th - 20th August 2023
We are thoroughly excited to be on the edge of welcoming you back to Kettlewell for our annual event.
On Saturday 12th August, scarecrows will be placed in all corners of the village and our judge, BBC’s very own Tom Ingall, will give out the 20 or so awards across the village. We will then be ready to throw open our ‘doors’, ice the cakes and get you all on the trail.
Will you be one of the trail winners (trail sheet only £1)?
Will you spot The Clangers lurking around a tree or Shaun the Sheep up to his usual tricks?
Maybe you’ll have an encounter with The Royle Family or marvel at the Planet Earth in all its glory.
Whatever is up your street, we probably have a scarecrow to suit!
Come and have a great day out 12th to 20th August
We look forward to meeting you.

2022-07-21: We're back for 2022

We're back! Yep! Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival is back in business and will return between the 13th-21st August 2022. We'll have amazing scarecrows, amazing cakes and probably some amazingly erratic weather!

We're beyond excited and can't wait to see you. There will be some changes to accommodate Covid and keep our little village safe and secure, so please keep checking back to see our plans. But in the main, it will be business as usual: same wacky and wonderful scarecrows, same beautiful scenery and views, same gorgeous cakes and soup, and same great value. We aim to give you a wonderful family day out that really won't break the bank. In fact, bring a picnic and the whole day will cost you less than a fiver for a family.

So, pop the dates in the diary and round up your relatives! We can't wait to see you in August!

2021-05-17: Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival 2021 CANCELLED

With great sadness, and after much deliberation, we are sorry to announce that we have cancelled the 2021 Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival. With new variants still threatening the UK, and many people still not vaccinated, we're not quite over Covid yet. Furthermore the logistics of running a festival out of a small village hall, with some volunteers still shielding or only just coming out of shielding makes putting on the 9-day festival very difficult indeed. We hope to see you in 2022. With much love and best wishes from all of us in Kettlewell.

2021-05-17: Kettlewell launches its first virtual Scarecrow Festival

The Virtual Festival is now live at https://kettlewellscarecrows.uk !

Having had to cancel the annual festival in the village this year due to Covid-19, we couldn't bear to leave people without at least a little something to cheer up their summer, especially with intermittent lockdowns and so many necessary restrictions on everyday life.

Our solution? Our very first virtual scarecrow festival. Built entirely in-house, it's certainly been a challenge, but we've had members of our local community of all ages involved in helping us put together all the things you'll find on the site. Whether it's Buckden Singers performing an online concert of sorts, our schoolchildren creating artwork for a calendar you can pre-order, or our creative cooks sharing their recipes for the delicious food that's served each year in the Village Hall, we've something to keep you entertained. There's even a virtual scarecrow trail with photospheres of the village, if you've never had the chance to come here yourself to see it.

Head on over to https://kettlewellscarecrows.uk to see what's there. We'll be adding new content daily until 16th August, then leaving the site up for people to enjoy.

2019-05-07: Silver Jubilee for Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival

This summer, Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary and one of the two themed trails around the village will wind back the clock to the personalities and news stories of 1994. Whether you remember much about this year or not, the scarecrows planned for the route will be easy to recognise, from the new leader of 'New Labour' to the president of the Unites States and icons of the Manchester music scene to momentous national events. There's a historical twist to the children's trail too, as the Scarecrow Committee has amazingly managed to dig out the original clues from the very first themed trail which was nursery rhymes.

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival was started back in 1994 by a handful of local parents to raise money for Kettlewell Primary School. There was no official trail around the village back then but residents were encouraged to create scarecrows depicting their profession, which included farmers (of course), a doctor, decorator and an electrician up a ladder, with sparks fizzing from the fuse box, which became a favourite with visitors for many years.

Thanks to such an enthusiastic response from villagers, more and more scarecrows started to appear every year - in gardens and doorways, peeking over walls and popping up in every corner of the village. Not surprisingly the fame of the festival started to spread further afield and soon visitors were arriving by the coach load to spot the scarecrows on a wander around this idyllic Yorkshire Dales village.

The other major attraction of Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival has always been the amazing homemade cakes on offer with other refreshments in the Village Hall - from legendary lemon drizzles to traditional fruit cake with Wensleydale cheese. Value for money has also played an important part in the festival's popularity, and does so to this day, with car parking for the whole day only £3 and clue sheets for the trails just £1 - making it quite possible to have a fun family day our for under a fiver! All the profits now provide much needed funds for Kettlewell School, St Marys Church, Kettlewell Village Hall and other community projects - funds that have amounted to tens of thousands of pounds over the last 25 years!

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival now runs for 9 days every summer, this year from 10th to 18th August, and attracts around 15,000 thousand visitors from far and wide. It is one of the biggest and best in the UK and has featured on TV shows like The Dales & Lakes and The Yorkshire Dales as well as Radio 2 and in national newspapers including The Telegraph and Daily Mail. It also has over 3500 followers on Facebook which is a handy place to find out the latest news and see more pictures. Full information is also available on the website: www.kettlewellscarecrowfestival.co.uk.

Ends

For press information and pictures please contact Nicky White:
Tel. 07976 810356, nickyjwhite2000@gmail.com

2018-08-07: REAL CALENDAR GIRLS TO JUDGE KETTLEWELL SCARECROW FESTIVAL

On Saturday 11th August, three of the 'real' Calendar Girls will judge which scarecrows are the very best of this year's annual Scarecrow Festival in Kettlewell, which runs from Saturday 11th to 19th August. It's especially fitting that 'Calendar Girls' Angela Baker, Tricia Stewart and Christine Clancy will be judging the Festival as one of the themed scarecrow trails this year is 'Movies' and it's twenty years since their film was such a massive hit.

The judges will certainly have their work cut out with so many scarecrows to choose from in every corner of Kettlewell, from the topical and comical, to major masterpieces with moving parts. Besides the movie-themed scarecrow trail for grown-ups, the fun themed trail for children is based on 'Magical Stories', with daily prize draws to win £10. Clue sheets for both trails around the village cost just £1 with all proceeds going to Kettlewell Primary School, the village hall, St Mary's Church and other community projects.

Homemade cakes, sandwiches, soups and other refreshments will be served throughout the day, every day, in Kettlewell Village Hall, with all the profit making up a large part of the fundraising effort. There is also plenty of parking for the whole day for just £3, making Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival one of the best value, fun family days out of the summer holidays in Yorkshire and beyond. More information and pictures are available at www.kettlewellscarecrowfestival.co.uk and also www.facebook.com/kettlewellscarecrowfestival and https://twitter.com/Scarecrowsfest.

During Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival, an exhibition, 'Twenty Years of the Calendar Girls' will be taking place at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, until 30th September. On 16th August, Calendar Girls the Musical also begins a nationwide tour at Leeds Grand, with an award-winning score by Gary Barlow and five star reviews from its debut in London's West End .

Ends
For press information and pictures, please contact Nicky White:
Tel. 07976 810356. Email nickyjwhite2000@gmail.com