Update: Oct. 14 4:36 p.m.
Scarecrows are everywhere, from your classic farmer’s set up to McDonald’s famous Hamburglar.
Scroll down to see our photo gallery, tell us which one is your favourite in the comments.
Original Oct. 10 12:32 p.m.
Rutland businesses are gearing up for the annual Scarecrow competition Sunday, Oct. 14.
Roaming entertainment, face painting, crafts, food trucks an outdoor market and more than 120 scarecrows will decorate Lions Park for the Uptown Rutland Scarecrow Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Jon Garratt, co-owner of Rutland business Whisk Cake Company, is creating a scarecrow for the competition for the first time.
“We’re trying to do as much as we can and give back to the community as much as we can,” he said.
The scarecrow is being created using elements from the cake shop and features paper machete hands, according to cake company’s Facebook page, but Garratt doesn’t want to unveil too much to the competition, aside from the sneak peaks and mentioned the company is using cake ingredients.
RELATED: Scarecrow Festival returns to Kelowna
Oddly, enough, one of the weird challenges they faced in its creation was finding non-edible ingredients in Kelowna.
“To get a bale of hay right now is absolutely impossible,” Garratt said.
He said to participate it’s about making the most of the time he has, balancing the business and the community and said he and wife Tanya, who is the other owner of the shop, will be taking their 11 month old to the festival.
“We need to live life in the moment, she’s going to look to us to teach us stuff, for us that’s pretty important and we’re going to bring her to the scarecrow festival Sunday,” he said. “We’re the next generation right? We are the young entrepreneurs of the area, community involvement has been pretty important to us as of late.”
RELATED: Rutland Scarecrow Festival continues to grow
Executive director Laurel D’Andrea, of the Uptown Rutland Business Association, said about 20 nonprofits and various businesses will also be attending as a way to showcase Rutland. Some of the craziest creations she’s seen was when a plumbing company used a pumpkin as a plumber’s crack and the family who had a Wizard of Oz theme.
“The whole premise of this is to bring the whole family up to Rutland,” she said. “When people come up to Lion’s Park on Sunday, we hope they (visit local businesses).”
“I think we’ll have some fun scarecrows dressed as candidates.”
When the festival first started, it had about 50 people, now it draws thousands.
Lions Park is located on Gray Road in Rutland, behind the Plaza 33 shopping centre. The event runs from 12 to 4 p.m.
@carliberry_
carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
