The creativity is insane this year.

Leap’s annual Scarecrow Festival kicked off on Friday and runs until November 5th, and the locals are bringing it for Halloween ’23.

If you’ve never attended, the festival sees Leap’s businesses and residents go all out on their Halloween decor, building life-sized (and much larger) scarecrows and monsters designed to lurk in almost every nook and cranny in the village throughout the spooky season.

The Scarecrow Festival was the brainchild of local resident Rita Ryan, who brought the idea to a few interested people in 2015.

Initially, we just thought it might be nice to have a festival of fun for Halloween, in our quiet little village of Leap, and hoped that maybe a few people from the surrounding areas might find it amusing and come and join us.” the group explains.

“From this humble beginning, the idea took flight and the whole community rallied around with their witty, artistic, hilarious, and terrifying scarecrow creations. Suddenly our village was swarming with crowds, coming from all over Munster and the rest of the country.”

The perfect day of Halloween-themed family fun, you can spin down for a stroll around, grab lunch at Ger’s Wild Atlantic Diner or pizza and a pint from Connolly’s of Leap, and soak up the harvest atmosphere.

Don’t miss the Ireland’s Mythical Goddess exhibition in Leap Church of Ireland and the Wand & Witches broom making workshop on Sunday (12pm to 3pm) too.

Entry is free and there are prizes in a variety of categories. For regular updates, check out their new website.