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The Firefly Festival - A Night to Celebrate Fireflies!
Close Up of a Firefly in Flight
A Special Night Dedicated to the Firefly
Many of us have memories from childhood that include fireflies. They bring back warm memories of summer days gone by. Our family recently discovered an event called the firefly festival that is put on by the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield Missouri. Evidently they have a lot to offer, but have these extra special events at different times throughout the year. The Firefly Festival is just one of them. For the most part, these are repeat events every year. This year, there are three Wednesdays in June that you can go, and they often take walk ups but only if they are not sold out. There are two more times you can go this year.
Here are the details that we learned of, if you are interested in going yourself now or in the future. You can purchase tickets ahead of time, which are $14.00 each, unless you are a Missouri Botanical Garden Member and the price drops to $12.00 each. It starts at eight o'clock at night, which may seem late for the little ones, but is a must because it needs to be dark of course.
We got bracelets that showed we had purchased tickets, and received a brochure of the itinerary of the nights events. Basically, it is a self guided thing, but its good to do things in the order they suggest. For instance, you can go on what they called a "Glow Walk" in the tropical butterfly conservatory. This isn't the ideal time to see the butterflies evidently, but you might seem some, some tropical flowers, and all the little glow lights throughout the neat paths in there.
You can make a craft, like a firefly puppet in their learning lab, which was really fun for the kids. Its also special because its something they can take home. Outside the back doors is a garden and terrace area where they had more things to do. We also had received a ticket per person to get a little snack out there. Then there was a glow carnival in the Emerson theater. They had a fun story time, as well as really beautiful face painting! The kids loved that.
You could even get a souvenir picture to memorialize the evening, which was so neat! The thing that makes the night extra special however, is the Firefly Walk! This is what we had heard about from one of the staff there, and was why we purchased tickets at all. On the walk, you are guided to a field where there are fireflies blinking their little lights. The guide was an entomologist and was very knowledgeable about fireflies. We all learned a lot from that especially and talking with the other staff and workers.
On our way out there is a gift shop which we often try to avoid, but saw some cute books about fireflies and got one of those and a couple of cold drinks. The kids had a good time, as we all did and we made a new family memory!
One of the best things about this night was that it was so different from other activities you would normally do. You can spend almost that much going to the movies for example, but that isn't anything new really. So we can recommend this Firefly Festival to others. We saw young and old partaking in the events of the evening. Even though it was very hot, we had a good time.
Where the Firefly Festival Is - Location Faust Park
Firefly Festival - A Poll
Have you ever heard of or gone to something similar to the Firefly Festival?
© 2015 Paula