It’s that time again for one of the West Virginia Botanic Garden’s (WVBG) most-popular events of the year: the 14th annual Fall Children’s Festival.
Planned for 1:30-4:30 p.m. Oct. 6, the festival crafts an atmosphere for children to view the natural world as an endless opportunity for self-expression.
The central vision of the Fall Children’s Festival is to highlight the wild and wonderful beauty of fall in West Virginia. This year, though, the event will also illustrate the magic of childhood by emphasizing one of WVBG’s most-popular areas: the Fairy Garden.
Although the Botanic Garden offers its recently expanded Children’s Adventure Garden as a means for children to climb and play in the natural world, the Fairy Garden offers a unique amalgamation of wild exploration and unstructured creativity.
“I think the Fairy Garden has its own specific magic,” said WVBG Education Director Abigail Waugh. “It’s this place with that connection and getting up-close with nature, digging in the soil, playing with branches and moss and things; it combines with a lot of creativity.”
On any day of the year, regardless of weather or season, visitors to the Fairy Garden can explore dozens of structures crafted by the clumsy, dirt-covered hands of imaginative youth. The structures — homes and businesses and recreation for the area’s resident fairies — are, at times, loose concepts leaned against one another, or may resemble the interlocking style of Lincoln Logs, while others are artfully and painstakingly woven together.
By the next week, an entirely new community of fairy abodes will be recycled from the previous designs.
These themes of pushing the limits of imagination with only the Earth’s materials at one’s disposal is an overarching theme of this year’s Fall Children’s Festival.
Although the Fairy Garden is a highlight of the event, a range of other festivities will be available across the Botanic Garden’s various amenities.
Pumpkin painting, story time, printmaking with leaves and face painting are a few ways the Botanic Garden will unite art and nature during the festival. Whichever activity visitors explore, the objective is the same: inviting children and their families to get outside and engage with the world around them.
“When you get outside, whether you’re really setting out to learn, just by connecting with the trees, with the salamanders and insects that are out there in the garden, just being out there is a form of learning,” said Waugh. “Getting that connection with nature and spending that time being creative is part of wellness, and community wellness is a big part of our mission.”
WVBG partners Umbrella Arts, the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia (ACCA), Girl Scouts of Black Diamond, WVU Extension, On Eagle’s Wings Therapeutic Horsemanship, Cheat Area Public Library and Cheat Lake Volunteer Fire Department will perform outreach and host activities for attendees. The ACCA and On Eagle’s Wings may bring ambassador animals. Refreshments will be available.
New and seasoned visitors alike will be able to explore the botanic garden’s newly opened Equitrans Midstream Visitors Center, while another update to the garden’s amenities may also be highlighted.
This fall, WVBG will collaborate with local artist Michael Loop to construct a whimsical entrance to the Fairy Garden, which will be crafted from steel and cordwood.
Loop’s work is no stranger to Botanic Garden visitors. Just last year, the sculptor designed a trailhead marker for the Botanic Garden’s Pixie Cup Trail, a larger-than-life depiction of the trail’s pixie cup and British soldier lichens.
Although the new structure may not be complete in time for the Fall Children’s Festival, it reflects the festival’s spotlight on the Fairy Garden’s magical atmosphere.
“It is always a joy to see how kids react to the [Fairy Garden]. I think the real magic out there is just seeing how the kids connect and what they come up with,” said Waugh. “I think what is the most exciting is that the kids really have a lot of space to take the lead in [the Fall Children’s Festival], and we get to see nature and the magic of fall through their eyes.”
Required registration for the Fall Children’s Festival and additional information is available at WVBG.org/programs/events. WVBG is at 1061 Tyrone Road and is open from dawn to dusk year-round.
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