The Kansas Wetlands Education Center’s 11th annual Butterfly Festival will be held on Saturday, September 28 from 9:00am – 12:00pm. 

Each year, millions of monarch butterflies undertake their annual fall flight to Mexico. Nets and tags will be available during the event for those who want to capture and tag monarch butterflies. Participants head out into the flower-filled fields and shelter belt around KWEC to capture monarchs, with tagging leaders stationed along the trail to help with the tagging process. For the past several years, monarchs tagged at the event were recovered at three Mexico roost sites.

StoneLion Puppet Theatre will be back again this year presenting “Bubba & Trixie”, a story of a scaredy-cat caterpillar afraid to leave his leaf until it meets a fearless ladybug.  This story about friendship and facing fears is sure to delight attendees of all ages!   

Larned-based Kellie Honey Farm will be present with a demonstration hive on display in the exhibit hall to educate about the importance of honeybees.

KWEC will also feature an invertebrate zoo, with giant walking stick insects, butterflies, caterpillars, chrysalises, fluorescing scorpions and more. Kids can make a crawling caterpillar craft or a butterfly mobile at the craft station and take part in many other activities. 

Grassland Groupies, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring the conservation of grassland ecosystems, will be at the festival with a Bumblebutt Petting Station, an all male (so they won’t sting) bumble bee interaction display.

Explore the Melody Marsh, a new interactive addition to the KWEC Pollinator Garden and paint a section of a mural celebrating the monarch butterfly that will be displayed on the garden’s fence.  The garden provides wildflower planting ideas to use at home and features a variety of native and adaptable plants that serve as host plants for different species of caterpillars and provide nectar sources for pollinators including butterflies, birds, bees, beetles, and more! Milkweed plants and wildflower seeds will be available free until they run out.