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, whi.