The beautiful town of Mahone Bay is in many ways typical of the small coastal communities of Canada’s Maritime provinces. Stretching along the Bay, dominated by several church spires, it’s an inviting place to visit. Much to our surprise, we found the town invaded by hundreds of scarecrows. Seems we had arrived a week before the 20th Annual Scarecrow Festival & Antique Fair.
There are around 200 hand-made, life-size scarecrows in town for the festival, some on people’s front lawns, some in front of businesses, some in public places. All were carefully crafted, with unique costumes. And they varied greatly from traditional scarecrows, characters from literature, a lively hockey game, a curling contest — even a Wizard of Oz scene. Perhaps most popular was a scarecrow version of the Royal Family. We spent a few hours wandering around the town enjoying the scenery and the fascinating collection of scarecrows.
The Scarecrow Festival was to begin the following Friday morning, several days after our visit. Besides the displays of scarecrows, that weekend was to have featured a Pumpkin Walk on Saturday night with hundreds of uniquely carved pumpkins all lite up, ending with a firework celebration over the government wharf. Other highlights included children’s activities and crafts, music, historic graveyard tours, a Quilt Jamboree and the largest antique show in the Maritimes.
Here’s some of what we saw the day we visited….
