Oisin and Saoirse O’triscoll put the finishing touches on their scarecrow created at Smallpond Art’s Scarecrow Festival. Photo: Michael J Brethour/Quinte News
Saoirse
As festivals go, Thanksgiving weekend’s annual event at Smallpond Arts is perhaps the ‘scariest’.
The 6th annual Scarecrow Festival in Prince Edward County saw over 75 scarecrows created and stuffed, just slightly down from last year’s event.
Krista Dalby, organizer of the festival, said that the whole of the event is a family oriented affair that gives gathering families a perfect group activity to participate in.
A scarecrow is pictured in the foreground as families create their own personal harvest guardians at the sixth annual Scarecrow Festival. Photo: Michael J Brethour/Quinte News
“We give them a stake and we have a mountain of clothes for them to choose from and a big pile of straw that they can stuff their scarecrow with and overall be really creative,” she said.
Creating this custom scarecrow only costs families $25 and they take their straw people home with them, in trunks and even strapped to the roofs of their vehicles. Dalby said the participants tend to keep their creations long past the fall season.
Brenda Simpson straps a Scarecrow to the roof on her van Sunday after helping to create the family’s scarecrow. Photo: Michael J Brethour/Quinte News
krista dalby
For the O’triscoll family from Oshawa, the county festival has become a tradition as the couple and their two children Oisin and Saoirse created a scarecrow named Scary Jenna, an accompaniment to last year’s creation Scary Jack. Jenna will spend Thanksgiving with the family before meeting her other half.
The Montoro family from Newmarket puts the finishing touches on their Scarecrow. Photo: Michael J Brethour/Quinte News
oisin O’triscoll
Every year the festival uses the event as a fund raiser for a local group. This year the festival collected funds for the Firelight Lantern Festival set for November 12 at the Crystal Palace in Picton.
