Lots of people like dressing up for Halloween. There is no obligation to do so but you’ll be adding to the event if you do! See our Halloween Dressing Up Tips for some inspiration.
A few years ago we added the Non-new-plastic Home-Made Fancy Dress Competition and it’s been really popular with children and adults, so it’s back for 2022.
No New Plastic Fancy Dress Competition
A judge talking with young entrants in 2021
From last year
A happy winner
A previous line up in the adults category
There are three categories
- 3 – 8 years
- 8-16 years old
- 16 years and up
There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in each category.
Judging and prize-giving will be at 2 pm in the Performance Tent.
Anyone can enter in any costume but if you want to win, this is what we are looking for:
- Costumes that are homemade.
- No new plastic bought to make your costume, not even a button (plastic here includes polyester, nylon, acrylic).
- If buying new materials please buy natural ones ( cotton, wool, wood, felt, hessian) or use feathers, leaves, berries etc.
- Better still reuse and upcycle charity shop or old clothes (even if it includes plastic, e.g fake fur is usually polyester).
- Do not use any glitter* but body/facepaint is fine.
This still leaves masses of possibilities – have a look at our tips page for more inspiration.
Why this emphasis on non-plastic?
Because as you may know, we’ve been trying for years to get away from the commercialism and plastic-waste generating aspects many events and in the last few years it has become increasingly evident that we all have a huge problem with plastic, including ‘hidden’ plastic in clothing. Essentially plastic is not recyclable in the same way that say aluminium or glass is, and loads of what is sent-for-recycling ends up as waste, becoming micro-plastic pollution, or at best, getting incinerated.
*Avoiding Glitter Pollution
We’ve designed-out glitter from Workshops and used other things for magical highlights. See more at Cutting Out The Plastic.
At the Fancy Dress Competition – The Real Halloween 2018
Read about our investigation into plastic waste generated from Halloween costumes here: The Scariest Thing About Halloween is Plastic.
(Our 2018 graphic was viewed more than a million times on Facebook!)
To book entrance tickets and workshops:
