Bromyard Scarecrow Festival 2026
The theme of this year’s scarecrow festival will be HEROES OR VILLAINS. Each scarecrow must depict a person who is known for being either a Hero or a Villain. The festival will take place over the weekend of Friday 12th June, Saturday 13th June and Sunday 14th June.
Why not make a scarecrow with friends and neighbours, associations or groups to which you belong, or with your family?
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June
Our idea is to create an easy walking route around all the scarecrows. Scarecrows can be placed in town by you, in your garden, outside where you live, in the window of your business, or placed by our team around the town; it is your choice. They will be judged on the Saturday morning, 14th June 2024, from 11 o’clock. Our judges are strictly impartial and are from outside of Bromyard. The prizes are: £75 1st prize, 2nd prize £50, 3rd prize £25 plus certificates for those who are Highly Commended.
Competition
We will compile our normal competition booklet for adults. Competitors are required to match a scarecrow to a cryptic clue in our competition booklet. We try not to make it too challenging; it’s meant to be fun! There will also be a children’s competition as normal with clues on each scarecrow. The adult with the most correct answers wins £50 and for the winning child there will be a £25 book token. In the event of more than one winning entry we reserve the right to select a winner. Competition forms will be available from the Friday evening.
Grand Scarecrow Parade
On the evening of Friday 12th June there will be a parade of Entourages around the town. They will be based on the theme of Heroes or Villains and are often made by schools, guides, scouts etc., but anyone can enter. The scarecrows need to be mobile so that they can be pushed through town. We feel it a highlight of the festival watched by many as the parade processes around the town. If you make a scarecrow, it is not essential to enter the parade. Those in the parade will assemble in St Peter’s churchyard at 6.30pm and then lead off along Church Street at 7.00pm. The parade then turns up Broad Street and High Street, ending on the Town Green, where they will be judged. There will be up to four prizes of £50 each, at the judges’ discretion. It is a great spectacle and enormous fun. We make a bucket collection; this collection will go towards offsetting the cost of the event, in addition to supporting the town of Bromyard in promoting its festivals. The scarecrows can then be stored by us ready for the weekend or can be taken by owners to their locations for the weekend.
Sponsorship
If you would like someone to sponsor your scarecrow, we will label it on your scarecrow, in our competition booklet and list it in our sales kiosk. Cheques are payable to Bromyard Scarecrow Festival Business account: sort code; 30-94- 99; account no 1817598.
Building a Scarecrow
If you wish to build a scarecrow you first need to contact me, Lynne Wilkins at bromyardscarecrows@gmail.com or Tel: 01885 488206; Mob: 07866 528929, to make sure that your choice hasn’t already been selected by someone else. It is important that your choice is original; we do our best to avoid any duplication.
Our theme for 2026 is slightly different from those in the past in the past. This year our Scarecrows can be a Hero or a Villain. Now it’s entirely up to you who or what you choose as either a Hero or a Villain. It could be a real life character or one taken from a book, a film or a cartoon-just remember check with Lynne that it hasn’t already been chosen it’s always a shame when we have two the same.
We would be very grateful if all of the Scarecrows names could be with us by the second week in May as we have to set the clues and get the clues to the printers.
Over the years we have seen many Scarecrows all have which have been put together with a lot of hard work. When it comes to judging the Scarecrows this is done with absolutely no input from the Scarecrow Committee but by judges who we have asked help as they have no connection to any of the organisations within the town and therefore are unbiased. The very hard part is that every year some Scarecrow builders will be disappointed. Some of our scarecrows are placed by their owners and a whole scene built around them-our judges will judge the scarecrow itself and not its setting. The same goes for the entourages which are judged on the Friday night-the judges (who are different from those who judge the scarecrows on Saturday morning) look at the entourages and the prizes are allocated buy their choice alone.