1000 x 90

Sixth Annual Fairy Day Brings Summer Fun for the Children this Saturday at Daniel Boone Gardens

By Laura Boaggio

Daniel Boone Native Gardens will be holding its sixth annual Fairy Day on Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. The event will include butterflies, real-live fairies and more, to create a day of fun straight from a child’s dream. 

Daniel Boone Gardens in the summer, a time when many plants flourish in the gardens

The goal of the event is to “make people aware that the gardens are there,” as Hutchins said, and to entertain local families and their children with a magical day that will excite the kids’ active imagination.

There will be real fairies at this event for children to interact with, played by adult actors such as Ellowee Bumblebee Fairy and Pippen Butterfly Fairy. A new fairy guest named Ayla Dream Fairy will possibly be setting up a booth to sell dreamcatchers at the gardens. 

Annkatrin Rose, a botany professor at ASU, will have butterflies for the children to interact with, and an educational lesson on their importance in our ecosystem.

“She’ll be bringing Venus flytraps for a feeding station where kids can feed the plants with little bugs,” Hutchins said. The bugs will be freeze-dried of course and not alive. 

This is Daniel Boone Garden’s most popular summer event and last year’s fairy day saw a 435 people turnout. The garden also holds a photography workshop in the summer which uses the scenery as its studio. 

Fairy Day started in 2013 when board member and treasurer Rebecca Hutchins saw a newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer about a fairy day taking place at another garden, and decided to start something similar in Boone. 

The event is on a donation-base only, however there is a cost for face painting, refreshments and fairy wings if desired. All aged children are allowed to participate and some of the proceeds from the event goes directly back to Daniel Boone Gardens.  

Fairy Day has several partner organizations such as the Watauga Public Library and The Children’s Playhouse, but many of the people involved are community members and families. Hutchins said they are still accepting vendors interested in fairy-related activities for the day and to contact Sarah Gilley at Togilley@Gmail.com

Scenes from the Daniel Boone Native Gardens: