It may not be laid down in the calendar, but some time after the spring equinox, when the weather warms up and the days start getting longer, is the beginning of festival time.

This weekend sees the start of the Wray Scarecrow Festival in Lancashire, where villagers compete to build the most imaginative scarecrows. No Worzel Gummidges: instead one is more likely to see a scarecrow of Amy Winehouse or Buzz Aldrin, or Naomi Campbell doing community service.

This weekend also sees the 2nd Leeds Zombie Film Festival, which markets itself under the tagline: “When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk Leeds.”

Some festivals are at least rooted in tradition. The Rochester Sweeps Festival at the beginning of May claims to be the largest morris dancing event in the world (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on one’s point of view) and “re-creates the joy and laughter enjoyed by the chimney sweeps at their traditional holiday”.

The Wicca festival of Beltane involves herding animals between two fires. On Thursday anyone interested can experience a modern version of this ancient fertility rite at the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh.

Too scary? The 28th International Festival of Worm Charming takes place in the Devon village of Blackawton, where competitors try to charm as many worms from the ground as they can in 15 minutes. Or why not give the 3rd Annual Hurdy-Gurdy Festival in Youlgrave, Derbyshire, a go?

If books are more your thing, try the Swindon Festival of Literature. Yes, Swindon. If that lacks a certain plausibility, there is always the Alresford Watercress Festival in Hampshire, which has cookery demonstrations, watercress-eating competitions and probably more Vitamin C than all the other spring festivals put together. Not one for zombie fans, though.

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