Dee’s Bee & Butterfly Festival

Celebrate pollinators, nature and family fun during Dee’s Bee & Butterfly Festival on Friday, Sept. 11, from 4–7 p.m. at the Dickinson County Nature Center, 22785 Nature Center Road in Okoboji. The festival is Dickinson County Conservation’s largest event of the year and is free for all ages.

The evening will feature a variety of hands-on activities for families, including monarch butterfly tagging, a goat petting zoo, temporary tattoos, a scavenger hunt, bubbles, water games, a bouncy house, puppet shows and pollinator crafts. Most activities will run throughout the evening, with pollinator crafts available from 4–6:30 p.m.

Attendees can also enjoy special demonstrations and acrobatic entertainment. South Dakota Aerial & Arts will perform at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., and Boernsen Bees will present a honey extraction demonstration at 5:30 p.m.

Several vendors will be on site during the event. Siouxland Prairie Farms will offer a wide variety of Iowa native plants for sale, Boernsen Bees will have local honey and bee products available to purchase, and Back Alley BBQ will offer food and beverages for purchase. The Dickinson County Behavioral Health Coalition will provide visitors with information about the benefits of nature for mental wellbeing and local health resources.

Festival activities are free to enjoy, with food, beverages, native plants and bee products available for purchase. So don’t miss out on an opportunity for citizen science and fun with family and friends!