Showing posts with label Cambria Scarecrow Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambria Scarecrow Festival. Show all posts

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Cambria Scarecrow Festival finishes successful 14th year

Months of hardwork by dozens of dedicated volunteers produced another highly successful Cambria Scarecrow Festival, bringing thousands of visitors to the area.

Named by USA Today as one of the top 10 fall festivals, the homegrown festival just celebrated its 14th year. Paulla Ufferheide, president of the organization, said she's proud of what they have accomplished.

"I believe every single year the quality of our scarecrows just seems to go up and up. I think it was a really great festival and we look forward to trying to top it next year," she said.

While it's easy to measure the success by the many accolades, smiles and online pictures on social media, Uffeheide said the organization is tracking even more significant benefits for the community. 

"We measure it in a few different ways. One, we measure it in the bed tax. So if, we've got good occupancy of the hotels and motels, that's one of our measurements," she said. "We also measure it in the surveys that we have people go online. And then also sales tax." 

Ufferheide said sales tax receipts during the festival are an indication that visitors are doing business in local shops.

"So if all of the sales tax and the bed tax occupancy is high, then I know we've done our job," she said. "Businesses have said that before the Scarecrow Festival that October was their worst month for sales. Now many have said it's become their best month, so that's pretty amazing."

Ufferheide said it's too early to speculate about next year's festival, but she did say that while no new scarecrows are likely to be added, the ones in the festival now continue to get better and better. 

To learn more about the Cambria Scarecrow Festival, visit https://cambriascarecrows.com/