SeeCalifornia.com

Cambria Scarecrow Festival isn’t meant to scare — but to entertain –with designs such as an escapee from a senior care home and award-winning entry, Edgar Allen Poe.

Scarecrows are universal. You’ll find them in nearly every country around the globe in fields where crops are grown. Meant as decoys or mannequins, often in the shape of humans dressed in old clothes, these creations are and placed in open fields to discourage birds from feeding on seeds and crops being grown.

In California you may see scarecrows year-round on farms, but during the month of October don’t be alarmed when you come across an entire downtown area filled with hundreds of them!

Californians LOVE Halloween (most, anyway,) and among the scares, theme park thrills, haunted houses and trick-or-treat events, you’ll also find scarecrow festivals and contests. The bar has been raised on creativity as competitors try to win with their imaginative scarecrow designs and themes.

California Scarecrow Festivals

• BENICIA – Frightfully First Street Annual Scarecrow Contest during month of October
• BRENTWOOD – Scarecrows in the Park mid-October for several weeks
• CAMBRIA – Entire month of October
• DIXON – Cool Pumpkin Patch Halloween Season
• EXETER – Month of October
• FALLBROOK – Entire month of October
• LATHROP – Halloween Season at Pumpkin Maze
• RIPON – Month of October
• SIERRA MADRE – Most of October

1-Day or Weekend Contests

• AUBURN – Auburn Community Festival Scarecrow Contest
• COSTA MESA – Scarecrow Festival
• ELK GROVE – Giant Pumpkin Festival Scarecrow Contest
• UKIAH – Pumpkin Festival Scarecrow City
• VALLEY CENTER – Bates Nut Farm Scarecrow Contest
• WINDSOR – Harvest Pumpkin Jamboree Scarecrow Building