The 27th annual Children and the Arts Festival Saturday, May 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in downtown Peterborough will feature performers and activities related to this year’s theme of “Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!”
Program highlights include The Caterpillar Lab from Marlborough offering up-close-and-personal encounters with caterpillar experts and actual caterpillars in Putnam Park. The New Hampshire Bee Initiative will have a contained beehive in Depot Square, and musician OpaVolkert will perform family-friendly songs about fruit flies, black flies, ticks, crickets, bumblebees, mosquitoes, flies, and ants in Putnam Park.
Returning to the festival with several acts this year is VinnyLovegrove with his Toe Jam Puppet Band. Lovegrove will offer a shadow puppet show at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture that includes the original song “Born a Bug,” roving street characters including Jasper, King of the Bugs and The Toe Jam Puppet Band performing funny, interactive songs based on bugs in front of the Town House.
Bug-based interactive projects include the Cozy Arts Butterfly Puppet Workshop in Putnam Park, where children will learn how to create their own unique butterfly puppets; a bug-based chalk program on the Peterborough Town Library terrace; and a story walk in Depot Square Park featuring the book “The Very Quiet Cricket” by Eric Carle.
Additional events and performers, bug-related and otherwise, include the ConVal drumline, Lamy’s Black Belt Academy, Monadnock Gymnastics, MAMA Youth Dance Company, Peterborough Dance Theater and Flying Gravity Circus.
The festival, which is dedicated to children and families, is free. While the event will take place in person, organizers will follow whatever recommended health guidelines are in place at the time. For more about the festival or information on donating, volunteering or both, visit childrenandthearts.org.