Village ‘taken over’ by E.T. and Daleks for scarecrow festival
A village in Lancashire has been taken over by popular sci-fi figures replicated in scarecrow form, including E.T. and the Daleks from Doctor Who.
Wray Scarecrow Festival returned on Saturday and sees those in the community pay homage to sci-fi characters as per the theme of the event this year, with more than 50 installations.
“We’ve got a number of Daleks, characters from Star Wars, and there’s an amazing one from Planet Of The Apes.
“There’s a scene where there’s a huge, big black monolith and the ape standing in front of it with a bone in his hand… it must stand three metres tall.”
He said some animated scarecrows have also been made, including a Dalek.
Mr Gordon added: “There was one person in the village who said he had his family eating yoghurts for two weeks so they could get the yoghurt pots so they could stick them on to a Dalek.”
He said the idea for the theme came from someone from the voluntary scarecrow committee who “threw the idea” out to fellow members who thought it sounded “great”.
Mr Gordon and his wife have even got in on the action.
He said: “Remember the film Mars Attacks? Well we’ve got one of the Martians at the foot of our drive.
He said “a lot of time” was spent making the cloak, as well as using modelling clay to construct a brain across the top of the head of the scarecrow.
The festival – which began in roughly 1992 – has an origin story as quirky as the scarecrows on offer each year.
“One of our people who lives in the village here had gone to France one year on holiday and they were driving through some rural area and they saw what they thought was a man hanging off a tree and they were a bit worried about that, so they went into the local village to see what was happening and they noticed there was a scarecrow stuck on a bar outside the local pub.
“It was a momentary flash of brilliance.”
The festival runs until May 6, culminating with a traditional May fair, with other entertainment on offer for attendees including a giant scarecrow parade on May 3.
The events are run by the Wray Institute, a registered charity, with money raised being used to provide free use of its premises to a range of voluntary organisations, such as the Scouts, as well as supporting other local causes like the community owned and run village store.