Boarglar Bill and his friends have decided to self-isolate this year.
It is with a heavy heart we have had to make the very difficult decision to cancel this years Scarecrow Festival. With all our hope that things would be better by August, it just doesn’t look like it will be and at this current time we cannot see how we can continue safely. This is for several reasons:
1. There seems to be little on for the Bank Holiday which would in turn increase our numbers and crowd control or limiting numbers would be impossible. 2. It would appear that quite a few members of the public do not wish to wear masks and don’t understand the concept/reason for social distancing and wearing masks. 3. The majority of our volunteers are in the vulnerable category and their safety is paramount. We have contemplated doing a virtual scarecrow hunt online but a large part of our appeal is the actual hunt (particularly for Boarglar Bill) and it being a family day out. This would raise little in the way of funds for church as a considerable amount of the funds raised are made in the church café. 4. We have been in touch with our insurers and they have rightly pointed out that if we fail to cover every angle of Health & Safety and Harrogate has a spike of Covid-19 infections which can be traced back to our scarecrow festival, Karen, as an organiser, would be in serious bother. 5. All other scarecrow festivals (including Kettlewell) and other outdoor events have been cancelled.
We have lost over £5,000 from not having our Wednesday café this summer, another £6,000 due to the Christmas Fair being moved to the Yorkshire Show Ground and now approximately £6,000 from not having the scarecrow festival. We appreciate this will be a huge blow to the businesses in the village too so please understand our decision has not been made lightly.
We had some wonderful ideas planned for this year but we shall keep them safe for next year and hope that you do too (fingers crossed all will be well by then!).
In response to the lack of current funds Karen has decided to cycle Coast to Coast, roughly 182 miles (very hilly in parts), in September and would very much appreciate any sponsorship. We will post a JustGiving page link soon.
Thank you for all your love and support during this difficult time. See you next year.
