Celebrate Butterfly Migration at the Lake Katherine Monarch Festival

Nature lovers will flock to Lake Katherine on Sunday, September 13 to enjoy the non-profit park’s annual Monarch Butterfly Festival.

Lake Katherine’s 23rd annual fall festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a host of attractions to celebrate the monarch migration down to Mexico plus all things harvest.

Attractions will include a butterfly tent, an arts & crafts fair, hayrides, face painting, scarecrow making, canoe & kayak rentals, live animals, children’s farm, children’s games and crafts and food vendors.

Tickets cost $6 with free entrance to children age 3 and under. On the day festival-goers will be able to park at Palos Heights City Hall and take a free shuttle to Lake Katherine.

In the past 20 years the monarch population has dropped from a billion to 30 million largely because of habitat destruction. Monarch caterpillars feed and lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed but the colorful flower is rapidly disappearing from the countryside due to the overuse of herbicides and decline of the native prairie.

Throughout 2015 Lake Katherine has been a major force in helping improve the environmental conditions of the monarch butterfly and encouraging the community to lend a hand in this effort.

“It has never been more important to celebrate the monarch butterfly,” said Lake Katherine’s Operations Manager Gareth Blakesley. “We hope our fun and informative festival will encourage revelers young and old to take an interest in the conservation of this magnificent insect.”

Among the many attractions at the festival will be an education tent where volunteers will be handing informative flyers about monarchs and their milkweed habitat as well as selling milkweed seeds.

Prior to the event Lake Katherine are offering local businesses the opportunity to promote their trade and support the monarch butterfly by becoming official sponsors of the Monarch Festival.

Alternatively nature lovers can pledge to become family sponsors of the Monarch Festival through a $25 donation. In return Lake Katherine will add family names to full color, cut-out monarch butterflies which will be displayed throughout the Nature Center during the summer and fall months.

For more information about sponsorship opportunities please contact development coordinator Kate Coughlin at lake.development@lakekatherine.org.