Mary Valley Scarecrow Festival judging 28-29 August, 2010 and winners' presentations Saturday, 25 September Kenilworth Hall

Yes folks! Its back by popular demand! All the fun of the Scarecrow Festival and it is coming to your streets and paddocks from the 21 August right through September. Enter your scarecrow in either the “Traditional”, “Artistic”, or “Children” category.
This is a great opportunity to have some fun and dazzle our friends and visitors with our Aussie ingenuity. So how do you participate? Its simple, register your scarecrow in the local town of your choosing. Then make your scarecrow and have it in place where it can be easily seen from the road. Make sure its in place just before 21 August which is the official opening of Scarecrow Season. Don’t put it out too early, you want it to look its best for the judging which happens during the first week or two.
Each town that participates will have their own judges to choose the finalists that will represent them in each category at the Mary Valley finals. All finalists will receive a certificate.
The top 3 entries in each category from each town will be entered into the Mary Valley Finals.
The finals judging will happen on, or soon after, the weekend of August 28/29. We will have a couple of celebrity judges and the only criteria will be the “wow” factor.
From a finalist point of view, we are not looking for the best construction, the most elaborate design or other such things. We just want to have some fun and crown the scarecrow that has the most “Wow, that’s an amazing scarecrow!”. Yes, its totally subjective. We’ll just let the judges worry about the reasons why they chose one over the other.
The presentations for finalists and winners will be on Saturday 25th September at the Kenilworth Hall. Photos of the scarecrows will be on display for the following week and we hope to have a “people choice” award for each category.
Anyone can build a scarecrow! Here are 5 quick tips:
1) Skeleton: 2 wooden pieces (e.g. broomsticks) - one 6ft long & another 3ft. Attach them to form a cross.
2) Head: Pillowcase or hessian bag (need filling), or pumpkin. Paint a face and put head on the top of the cross.
3) Hands & legs: Put a shirt over your cross-shaped frame. You can use gloves for hands or tie the ends of the sleeves so the stuffing will stay inside. Put the pants on - insert the centre of the skeleton into one of the pant legs. Leave enough wood at the bottom of the leg to stake your scarecrow in the ground. Tie the legs.
4) Stuffing: Use straw, hay, clothing, plastic bags, newspapers. Stuff the pants first, tuck the shirt in, button & zip the pants. Tie rope or twine around the waist to act as a belt. Stuff the shirt arms first, then the rest of the torso.
5) Accessorise: You can sew /glue a hat onto the head of your ‘crow. Other options - a wig, scarves, ties, shoes.
Or you could just let your imagination flow!

If you cannot find your local scarecrow committee to register, contact Graham Miller on 5446 0100 or send an email to graham@webenhanced.com.au