Blackawton's International Festival of Worm Charming

Adults and children compete to extract the greatest number of worms from their dedicated one metre square patch of grassland but they have to do it without digging up any of the turf! The annual festival was started in 1984 when two locals decided to try it as a means of banishing the winter blues. Favourite tools to bring the beasts to the surface include questionable liquid combinations of water, beer, gravy and sugar - which contestants are required to sample themselves beforehand, just to prove that it won't do the worms any harm.