Hello it’s me again – Bartie Bear, with the latest report from Festival Land.

It’s hard to bear-lieve but our Festival is less than ten weeks away now – and we teddies can’t wait to try all the exciting rides on the Festival weekend here in Barton on September 2nd and 3rd.

There will be lots more fun things happening – so make sure you are around St James’ Church from 12.00 noon to 4.00pm. Vote for your favourite scarecrows; bring your flowers and veg to the garden show; have your photo taken with R2D2; tuck in to delicious cakes at the tea tent; check out the music and the art exhibition and stalls in and around the church.

There will be six exciting rides for the thrill-seeking bears of Barton to enjoy – Oblivion, Skywire, Target Ted, Top Gun Ted, Boat-a-Bear and High Wire – and you’ll need a passport to board them so head for the passport office first.

While we’ve all been looking forward to a bear-illiant Festival weekend our technical team has been very busy working to repair and refurbish all the complicated equipment which makes it work.

You may remember that our genius teddy ride inventor, Mr Jack, hung up his ‘teddy boots’ last year, but luckily he managed to track down the perfect person to take over. So now we have Mr Dave in charge of the rides and he’s got another Mr Dave to help him. And they are doing a superb job! They bravely climbed to the top of the church tower to mend the Oblivion ride.

Teddies looking to get a head start on the weekend’s fun can enjoy a midnight adventure – thanks to the kind volunteers at Barton Library’s Teddy Sleepover on Friday 1st September. Visit the library nearer the date to check out the details.

And talking of volunteers, we can’t run our rides and everything else without help – if you would like to lend a paw over the weekend, email teddiesbarton@gmail.com for more information.

Holidays provide the perfect time to plan your scarecrow to make another bumper year for the scarecrows of Barton!

Make everyone smile with a witty, scarecrow and maybe win a medal. Anyone who lives in Barton can take part and entries can be on any theme – sport, TV and films, current affairs, music - you name it!

Once again there will be gold, silver and bronze medals for the winners in each of the four categories. These are: Family, Adults, Clubs and Businesses. You can make as many scarecrows as you like and entry is free.

Download a form from our website at www.bartonfamilyfestival.org then email it to victoria.sylvester@ewemove.com or deliver completed forms to 24 Causer Road, Barton under Needwood.

Entries need to be in no later than Friday, 18th August 2023 to allow time for a map showing the location of the scarecrows to be made so visitors can judge which are the best.