This week I headed back to Kettlewell for their annual Scarecrow Festival. We went last year and it was genuinely one of the highlights of our summer! So I was really looking forward to this again this year. I had the dates in my calendar from the moment they were announced.
Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival takes place for a whole week every Summer and has done for the last 26 years. What I love especially is that it runs across two weekends meaning for those who work Monday-Friday you have two opportunities to attend over the weekend which is a rarity. We opted to go over the first weekend on Saturday 8th August.
This years theme was Sport and Thrillers. I felt this was a really random combo and I’m not entirely sure why they went for this. Whilst I loved it because I’m a big fan of thrillers, I’m not sure I’d ever put the two together. It made for a very random event! I think that’s all part of the fun.
Last year’s theme was Magical Creatures if I remember right. There were a lot of fairytale characters and it was perfect for our then 2 year old. Now she’s 3 and she’s a bit of a football enthusiast so sports works too.
Not quite old enough for Thrillers although she does have a soft spot for Chucky I must admit!
We got there around lunchtime and were thankful to be missing the coaches who were mostly all leaving by the time we arrived. We stopped by the river for a lovely picnic in the sun before starting the trail.
There is no better setting than Kettlewell. Being surrounded by the views of the Yorkshire Dales – Nothing beats it!
We parked in the official event car park that we used last year too. Only £4 all day and taking cash only.
We took the scarecrow we bought last year with us and he accomponied us for the day. I thought taking our own scarecrow would mean not having our 3 year old, Hilda pestering to buy her a new one! It worked as we didn’t walk away in the end with any more scarecrows.
£1 for a trail map and we chose to follow the kids sports trail. Admitedly I wish we’d have gone for the thrillers one instead given my love for horror movies but I didn’t quite think of this when it came to the purchase.
Starting from the toilet block we were momentarily distracted by the swallows nesting above the toilet door. I’ve never seen birds so young before! Their little faces with their giant beaks were so strange! It was an amazing sight to see.
We followed the same route as last year, I imagine it doesn’t change but only the scarecrows do. It was still just as exciting and this time Hilda was a whole year older so I was looking forward to seeing her reactions!
She started the day by wanting to hold the hands of the scarecrows and getting a photo with them all. Fearing it might take us all day to get around we had to convince her we didn’t need to get a photo with all of the scarecrows.
It didn’t take us long to shut this down thanks to the Grim Reaper who stopped us in our tracks. Whilst she went to meet him initially, she quickly decided she was scared of the Grim Reaper and needed a hug to calm herself down.
Her favourite last year was Little Red Riding Hood who stood by a bench with lots of goodies.
This year she was replaced with a teddy dog instead which wasn’t quite as impressive but Hilda gave him a little stroke anyway. I’m glad there was no chocolate because she’d definitely have been stealing it!
There were some familiar scarecrows that we saw last year only this time they were moved to different locations in the village. I liked how creative they were with reusing the regular scarecrows.
There were also lots of different scarecrows that were new for this year.
The first of the thrillers we saw was Psycho. You needed to be there to hear the sound effects because they made this scarecrow even better!
David Attenborough’s Planet Earth was one of our favourites.
Hilda liked the ones that came with added extras. Playing dominoes with a scarecrow is probably one of her highlights.
I loved our daughters reaction to the hippy scarecrow who sat on the rug. She wanted to join in and copy her.
Despite the theme being different, there were still lots of fun scarecrows for her to enjoy. She especially loved Buzz and all the characters in this area including Spongebob and Patrick as well as Bluey! I bet these always go down well with the kids.
My favourite house is always the one with the beautiful garden. There are a surprisingly large amount of houses with lovely gardens but one in particular always catches my eye. This time they had a display for the horror movie Birds and they did a brilliant job!
Another display I loved was the cowboys and Indians! Not sure where in the theming they fit but I thought this one looked like it had a lot of effort go into it!
There were so many fantastic scarecrows as always. It was another successful turnout and I’m so impressed with how many houses join in with the trail. It must take so much time to put together each year.
My personal favourite moment of the Festival was discovering The Scarecrows Wedding. This was a display that included the well-known Julia Donaldson children’s book which Hilda noticed instantly. She took a seat and sat down to read. As she flicked through she looked so happy. When I pointed out that the scarecrows were from the book, I can’t even explain how much her face lit up. It was adorable, she was so impressed.
Perhaps a new addition this year but one we didn’t see last year was a dress-up box and photo op. We loved this part and had lots of fun becoming scarecrows in the heat!
We were nearing the end of the trail now and definitely feeling it in our legs. Despite being told you can complete the trail in an hour, it actually took us closer to four! Obviously doing the trail with little legs was much slower but we did really well to get around the whole trail and still manage to finish before the ice cream stand closed!
Chocolate fudge brownie last year was the best ice cream i’d ever had! So I ordered the same again and wasn’t disappointed. Will we ever be able to end Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival without an ice cream in future?
Another fantastic festival and loads of reasons to return again next year!
If you haven’t been before, the festival is on until 16th August 2026 – There is still time!
~ Visited Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival in August 2026 ~
Visit Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival’s Official Website
Re-visit last years Festival:
The Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival 2025
Join me in the Yorkshire Dales for the annual Scarecrow Festival at Kettlewell village.
Join me on TikTok!
I joined TikTok last year and I know i’m a bit late to the party but I’m still a newbie so bare with me! If you’d like to see more of Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival check out my videos below:
So Beau 