For our 5th year we are going to do things a little differently. In the past, we have always run through the October Half Term. This year, we will have a summertime festival – think scarecrows on holiday!
We are hoping the weather will be kind to us and even more families will get out and about hunting the scarecrows!
When we first started the event in autumn 2020 during the height of the pandemic, it did take a huge amount of planning and brainstorming between the two of us. Luckily we have very similar ideas about how we wanted events to look, but very different skill sets, so we were able to divide the load effectively between us. In the first couple of years, it was almost a full time job in the run up to the festival! We almost saw more of each other than we did our families! It still takes a lot of planning and preparation, but we know what works well and have systems in place that mean we spend slightly less time planning now. The local community has been incredibly supportive- the residents throw themselves into creating the most wonderful scarecrows, and the Hawkinge Community Centre and the Hawkinge Residents Facebook group play a huge part in the festival’s success.
Every year, we see an unbelievable variety of scarecrows- we still get excited when we see what people have made. People can expect to be amazed at the creativity, skill and effort that goes into each and every scarecrow. We will also have another prize draw for those who complete the trail and work out our word puzzles– this will be announced nearer the time. Last year, one lucky family won a family pass to Port Lympne Safari Park!
Spreading the word is a really easy way for people to support the festival. If you know someone who lives in Hawkinge, runs a community group or even a local business – why not encourage them to make one this year? We would love to have more scarecrows than ever for our 5th year running! We will be creating a poster that can be shared and printed in the run up to the festival, so we would be very grateful to anyone who displays our poster far and wide!
The Hawkinge Community Centre do an amazing job selling the trail maps for us but it would be great to have some volunteers to help with this throughout the week, as we know it can be busy at times! If you would like to help in any way, please email us at [email protected]
The Hawkinge Scarecrow Festival provides people with something to do that is affordable, fun, active and family friendly. People work together not only to create the scarecrows, but to complete the trail. It creates a real buzz around Hawkinge, and it is really heart-warming to see a whole variety of people walking around with their trail maps, excitedly hunting scarecrows and trying unscramble the letters they found on the scarecrows to work out the word puzzles! The event also raises money for a different local charity every year, which just adds to the positive feeling the event creates.