GRAFTON, Vt. – The Fairy House Festival returns to The Nature Museum in Grafton, Vt., on Sept. 23 and 24 – the 14th annual celebration of nature, magic, creativity, and community. Dozens of volunteers and builders create a fairyland of small structures built from natural materials, including fairy playgrounds, castles, markets, gardens, and so much more. This family-friendly event is open from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. both days.
Visitors of all ages will have an opportunity to enter the Fairy House Trail Portal and explore the creations through the meadow and forestland, as well as enjoy a craft tent, fairy house building station, games, bubbles, vendors, and local food. The Fairy Royal Court will be welcoming all who enter the front gate, and fairy performers will be wandering the Chapman Meadow throughout the weekend. Many participants come in full fairy costume, complete with wings and sparkles.
The Nature Museum welcomes volunteers to help with the festival and donor contributions to the event, which is the museum’s biggest fundraiser of the year. All proceeds support the Museum’s year-round programming, including week-long summer camps, in-school and after-school programs, and all-ages workshops and immersive experiences. Additionally, the festival supports the wetland restoration in the Chapman Meadow, and the expansion of the Magic Forest Playscape, which is free and open to families dawn to dusk every day.
The museum also welcomes donations of non-invasive, abundant natural materials such as pinecones, acorns, small pebbles, dried grasses, daylily stems, and more, for the construction of fairy houses. Collecting natural materials is an excellent way to get up close with the natural world – where an acorn can become a fairy house chair, or paper birch bark is transformed into a castle peak. Past fairy house photos and guidelines for collectors are available on the museum’s website.
Visit the website at www.nature-museum.org to buy tickets, sign up to be a fairy house builder or event volunteer, or to make a donation to support nature education. Tickets are available now. Tickets at the gate may be limited, so the museum encourages visitors to buy tickets in advance.