Today was the big day of the inaugural scarecrow competition at the Beach Haven Community Garden. All I can say: it was such a wonderful event. We had 15 scarecrows in the running, many of them created by groups, rather than individuals. And yes, I thought, judging scarecrows would be easy peasy… No it wasn’t. In the end I had a list of points they had to fulfill, such as being scary, withstanding weather, making noise… Looking great, wasn’t good enough, as they all did.
We were totally overwhelmed by the participation. We had 290 votes by the end of the day and I got a bit nervous, as the one I had selected for my Artist’s Choice Award, was also looking to be winning the People’s Choice Award. In the end a different one turned out to be the people’s darling. One I wouldn’t have chosen, even though it looked scary, it was made of cardboard and the first big deluge (not uncommon in Auckland) would see to it.
Here some impressions of the day.
dedepuppets 
Well done! I visited the scarecrows and so I know it was a tough choice! I really like the winning one because of my sustainability leanings and I believe it also moved. There were a lot of other fabulous characters there as well.
thanks Cath. Honestly, I was blown away by the qualtiy of the entries.
This looks like everybody had a good time from artist to judge. I love the whole tradition of ephemeral figures.
it is amazing to see how much creativity there is in the community. We are now planning a sculpture in the garden….