More than 200 scarecrows on show at York festivals (From York Press)

More than 200 scarecrows on show at York festivals

8:24am Monday 2nd May 2011 in News By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

KING Kong, a sausage maker and a tooth fairies all ensured people were entertained this weekend.

They were among more than 200 scarecrows made for two different festivals in the York area to raise funds for projects in the UK and abroad.

About 160 of the scarecrows were scattered around Haxby and Wigginton as the two communities continued their tradition of helping the Phambili Nge Themba project for the under privileged in South Africa.

Steph Cooper is a member of Haxby Methodist Church and Christian Aid and has just returned from the country, where she and several other church members witnessed the project at work.

She said: “We’re twinned with the Pinelands Methodist Church in Capetown, and they work with a lot of under-privileged children and this is the fifth year we’ve run the scarecrow festival to raise funds for them and the Phambili Nge Themba project.”

More than 1,000 people visited the festival on Saturday with about 5,000 expected over the weekend.

Steph said: “We hope to raise about £4,000 for the project, which also works with AIDS awareness, job training and schools in the townships.”

Elsewhere in York, Planet South Bank, which was founded last October to promote local sustainable activities activities and to encourage the community to have fun together, held its own scarecrow festival in the South Bank area.

There were 50 scarecrows on a theme of Kings, Queens and Weddings.

All proceeds will go towards the group’s community garden project, run with Edible York and St Clement’s Church in Scarcroft Road, with the aim of encouraging residents to grow their own food, and members of the group spent Friday and Saturday afternoon planting seeds at the church.

Robert Lister, the pie baker at Haxby Butchers with their sausage maker entry in the Haxby Scarecrow Trail