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Aug 2020
After setting up in the face of a crisis 20 years ago, Ripley Scarecrow Pigfest has been cancelled this year - because of the pandemic.
The event was due to celebrate its 20th anniversary with plans to stage the biggest and best festival to date.
It was launched in 2001 to attract people back to the village and wider countryside in the wake of the foot and mouth crisis. Now, in an ironic twist, another crisis means it will not go ahead this year.
Organiser Karen Evans, who lives near Ripon, came up with the idea for a scarecrow hunt, featuring pig-headed characters with imaginative names given by their creators.
For consistency of look she has, in the previous 19 years, made the papier mache heads for each Pigfest character - providing a subtle nod to Ripley's boar's head emblem.
Karen told the Stray Ferret:
It has also brought another financial setback for the All Saints' Church fabric fund which, over the years, has benefitted from donations of thousands of pounds raised through the entry fee for participants.
Karen, who is a warden at the Ripley church, pointed out:
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