A village in Lancashire has been taken over by popular sci-fi figures replicated in scarecrow form, including E.T. and the Daleks from Doctor Who.
Wray Scarecrow Festival returned on Saturday and sees those in the community pay homage to sci-fi characters as per the theme of the event this year, with more than 50 installations.
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John Gordon, 72, one of the organisers, told the PA news agency: “There are quite a few E.T.s around – on the bike, of course.
“We’ve got a number of Daleks, characters from Star Wars, and there’s an amazing one from Planet Of The Apes.
“There’s a scene where there’s a huge, big black monolith and the ape standing in front of it with a bone in his hand… it must stand three metres tall.”
He said some animated scarecrows have also been made, including a Dalek.
He said the offerings have all been a surprise as “people don’t tell anybody else what they’re up to” and the village “really throws itself into it”.
Mr Gordon added: “There was one person in the village who said he had his family eating yoghurts for two weeks so they could get the yoghurt pots so they could stick them on to a Dalek.”
He said the idea for the theme came from someone from the voluntary scarecrow committee who “threw the idea” out to fellow members who thought it sounded “great”.
The committee is made up of locals of different ages, many of whom have full-time jobs.
Mr Gordon and his wife have even got in on the action.
He said: “Remember the film Mars Attacks? Well we’ve got one of the Martians at the foot of our drive.
“At one point (in the movie), the Martian comes down and zaps the American president and turns him into a skeleton, and we have a fluorescent green skeleton beside our Martian.”
He said “a lot of time” was spent making the cloak, as well as using modelling clay to construct a brain across the top of the head of the scarecrow.
The festival – which began in roughly 1992 – has an origin story as quirky as the scarecrows on offer each year.
“It’s been running for over 20 years and it started off by accident,” Mr Gordon said.