East Budleigh Scarecrow Festival

EAST BUDLEIGH SCARECROW FESTIVAL WEEKEND 13/14 JUNE 2026

This month, we welcome back the annual East Budleigh Scarecrow Festival. From Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th June, we encourage you to join us for a weekend of fun and games for every age.

We would be HUGELY grateful if as many of you lovely people as possible could contribute to the event by displaying a scarecrow outside your house. Doesn’t matter how big or small, how smart or scruffy, it will be much appreciated by everyone who comes to visit our village over the weekend. There is no set theme, let your imagination, or dressing up box, run wild!

We would also appreciate your donations of cakes (with a list of all ingredients please) for the cake stall which is always one of our most popular stands!

East Budleigh in Bloom will have a table so any spare plants or cuttings you care to donate will be welcomed. Great opportunity to snap up some fillers for your flower beds!

Also, time to raid the bookshelf and clear out some space for next year’s purchases. We would be delighted to pass on your pre-loved, but respectably presented, books. In the week prior to the festival, you can leave the books on the doorstep of Tony Venning at 1 Chichester Way or just bring them along on the Saturday morning when we are setting everything up.

There will be plenty of activities and refreshments to enjoy. The Village Hall will be the centre of the action where refreshments, including bacon rolls and cream teas, will be on sale between 11am and 4pm each day, along with a variety of stalls featuring local crafts and activities, cakes, pre-loved books, and plants. Make sure you don’t miss East Devon Rock Choir performing on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday there will be entertainment from our popular local musicians.

New for this year, visitors can take part in the East Budleigh Adventure Trail — an interactive village-wide experience featuring hidden clues, QR discoveries, storytelling, puzzles, and digital surprises woven throughout the scarecrow festival. Inspired by the lives and legacies of Roger Conant and Sir Walter Raleigh, the trail imaginatively brings together different chapters of East Budleigh’s history for a unique village adventure.

The Scarecrow Festival wouldn’t be the same without the ‘Roger Conant Duck Race’. Be in good time to choose and sponsor your racer for the dash from ‘East Budleigh’ to ‘Salem’. If you don’t win on Saturday, don’t worry, there’s another chance on Sunday!

Our wonderful local businesses are supporting our fundraising event and have generously provided great prizes to be won in the raffle. Tickets will be on sale in the Village Hall. You have to be in-it-to-win-it!

If you have a head for heights, there will be Church Bell Tower tours on both Saturday and Sunday between 2 and 4pm where you will get a good view of the beautiful countryside surrounding our village or be able to pick out your own home! You can try church bell ringing on both afternoons, as well as handbell ringing on Saturday afternoon.

Also up at the church there will be a display of knitted garments being prepared to send to Moldova and Ukraine with the charity CR2EE.