SAN ANTONIO – The free and family-friendly Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival will take flight once again this October in San Antonio.
Visitors can celebrate the monarch butterfly and other Texas pollinators with face painting, costumes, educational presentations, dancing, light gardening, a Dia de los Muertos altar and more.
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There will be more than 30 educational partners to provide hands-on, nature-based experiences for children and adults.
The festival will take place at the Brackenridge Park pecan grove by the San Antonio Zoo from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7.
Anyone planning to attend the festival can register for free online.
“The Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival is unlike other festivals as it is thoughtfully curated and designed to fully immerse attendees into engaging educational experiences that spark joy, cultivate compassion, and create long-lasting memories,” festival organizers said.
Some of the immersive experiences for the 2023 festival include:
*Descriptions provided by festival organizers.
- The People as Pollinators Experiment: Pick your favorite wildlife pollinator and transform yourself through face painting and costume. Metamorphosize to experience a day in the life as your favorite butterfly, bee, bat, or bird!
- Monarch Tagging: Participate in a citizen science project in partnership with Monarch Watch to place a (harmless!) tag on a monarch butterfly wing
- The Monarch Migration Obstacle Course: Become a monarch and fly the multi-generational Spring monarch migration by eating milkweed and metamorphosizing 3 times. Then, overcome obstacles like hail, hurricanes and taggers as you make your way back to Mexico for the Fall Migration
- Pollinator Procession: Join our friends from Bexar Brass as we dance, flutter, and buzz through the festival in true pollinator style
- Dia de los Muertos Altar: Connect with the spiritual aspect of the monarch, celebrate Dia de los Muertos, and the return of the monarchs to Mexico
- PLANTS, TREES, & MORE: Adopt a tree, plant a plant, and get your hands dirty as you learn how to do your part to take care of our ecosystem.