Scarecrow Festival creeps into Costa Mesa this weekend

Historical figures. A train engineer. Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein.

It may sound like a lineup for trick-or-treating, but it’s actually a cross-section of the submissions expected for Costa Mesa’s Scarecrow Festival this weekend.

Thirty-five scarecrows have been registered for the two-day festival, which will take place Saturday and Sunday at Goat Hill Junction, 2398 Placentia Ave., as part of the city’s 60th anniversary celebration.

Registration for the event closed Oct. 1. Participants may sign in their scarecrows between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday at the event location.

In recent months, the city has hosted scarecrow-making classes to acquaint residents with an art form that was probably much more common when Costa Mesa began hosting the festival in the 1930s.

“It’s going to be a great community event,” said Charlene Ashendorf, chairwoman of the city’s 60th anniversary celebration’s educational and historical programs committee. “We have some churches entered. We have some Costa Mesa businesses that are entering their scarecrows. And the participation from the elementary schools is wonderful.”

The festival, last held in the city in 1941, will include pumpkin painting, train rides, an antique organ display and a scarecrow contest. Winners will be announced at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is free and the festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. For more information, call (949) 945-7990.