KWEC Butterfly Festival

Mark your calendar for KWEC’s Butterfly Festival Butterflies, bees and bugs, oh my! All will be in residence at KWEC’s annual Butterfly Festival from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 17.

Most activities will take place outdoors, including tagging monarch butterflies, crafts and StoneLion Puppet Theater’s “Backyard Buggin’”. Featuring large, colorful puppets, “Backyard Buggin’” takes audience members on a trip through the grass where insects rule. The stage “grows” to make audience members bug size and the bugs, human size.
Puppet characters include a dragonfly, painted lady butterfly, tree frog, slug and more. The show will take place on an outdoor stage, so bring blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy two performances at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. StoneLion Puppet Theater has been entertaining audiences for 29 years. The non-profit company includes an international touring company and arts education teaching staff.
In-between the two performances, they will provide a puppet-making craft. Dancing butterflies will take center stage in KWEC’s auditorium, with the Barton Community College’s dancers, providing two performances at 10:15 and 11 a.m.

Following the performances, dancers will conduct a short dance workshop for children, complete with costumes. The workshops will take place outside. There is a limit of 10 children (ages 5-12) per workshop and registration is required by calling KWEC at 1-877-243-9268. The registration deadline is Sept. 14.

Nets and tags will be available for those who want to capture and tag monarch butterflies. Participants head out into the flower-filled fields and shelter belt around KWEC to hunt monarchs, with tagging leaders stationed along the trail to help with the tagging process.
During the last five years, 17 tagged monarchs released at KWEC have been recovered from winter roosts in Mexico. Weather permitting, a demonstration beehive will be on display in the insect zoo, in addition to giant walking stick insects, butterflies, caterpillars, chrysalises and more. Kids can make a butterfly banner at the craft station in the multi-purpose shelter, make and lob wildflower seed bombs and more.