RONALD McDonald, the icon of the American fast food chain, will be the target for a spear-throwing contest at the Lammas Games at Braziers Park, near Wallingford, on Saturday.

A giant effigy will be set up for the spear throwers and then ceremonially burned at the end.

Druids in full robes will deal with him in a Lammas ritual.

Other games at the event, organised by the Druid Network between noon and midnight on Saturday, will include wife carrying, giant cheese rolling, throwing Thor's hammer, hobby horse racing and three-legged racing, the traditional Oxfordshire game Aunt Sally, archery, and fighting with staves, all fuelled with a new real ale, Druids Fluid.

There will be a healing tent, plus runes and tarot card readings.

Bizarrely, there will also be a five-a-side football tournament.

The Lammas Games, formerly part of English country life at harvest time, were revived at Braziers Park two years ago.

Lammas or loaf mass celebrated the first harvesting of wheat and is traditionally August 1 or 6.

On top of the more energetic celebrations, there will be a competitive Eisteddfod to win the Spear of Lugh. Anyone can enter a poem, song or story, on payment of a £5 fee.

There will be a 12ft-high artwork, Homage to the Goddess, by artist Susan Goundrey-Kruse, exploring links between the pagan goddess of the harvest and the Christian St Bridget who supplanted her.

There will also be a vegetarian cafe and various craft stalls.

Organiser Cathi Davies said Ronald McDonald was the target for the spear throwing because the Lammas celebration was about working in harmony.

She said: "It is to make a spiritual and environmental point that Lammas is about working in harmony with nature and other people. I'm doing a talk on 'Trade Not Aid' about how harvest celebrations offer our communities a chance to consider how we honour our relationship with those who provide us with what we need.

"True and fair exchange enriches our lives and allows us to celebrate the abundance we enjoy."

Entrance tickets will be £10 £5 for children aged six to 12 and money raised will go to three charities, Oxfordshire's Flexicare, which provides care at home and transport for families with special needs children, the Dr Hadwen Trust, which tries to find alternatives to experiments on animals, and Tree Aid, which provides funding and training to communities in Africa.