Annual Butterfly Festival to take over Oak Grove walking trail

Oak Grove’s 16th annual Butterfly Festival is set for September 7 and the Oak Grove Tourism Commission is inviting the community to come and witness thousands of Monarch Butterflies take flight as they are released into the wild.

Commission Executive Director, Traci Cunningham, shared that they are gearing up for big day that will conclude with around 2,200 butterflies being released. Before the big release, attendees can enjoy a variety of activities.

At this year’s festival there will be a Kid’s Corner which will include face painting, arts and crafts, a petting zoo, train rides, a balloon artist, a bubble zone, a zipline and a ventriloquist performer.

The festival will also include education sessions hosted by Christian County Master Gardeners about butterfly habits, migration patterns and conservation work. Attendees will also have a chance to get up close to the butterflies in the butterfly house which will include hundreds of butterflies and the plants they enjoy.

Along with the festivities, Cunningham says a big butterfly sculpture is set to be unveiled in the Viceroy Butterfly Garden which was recently reconstructed.

At the end of the festival, attendees will crowd the grassy area in front of the Viceroy Amphitheater surrounding a cage of butterflies ready to be freed. For the butterflies that may be a little stubborn to leave the enclosure, Cunningham says they tend to pick up those butterflies and hand them to children to free them.

Cunningham says the children will often whisper a wish to the butterfly before setting it free. She describes the butterfly release as breathtaking and looks forward to people crowding the festival.

The festival kicks off on September 7 at 11 a.m. and concludes at 4 p.m. with the butterfly release at the Oak Grove War Memorial Walking Trail.