Butterflies ready for a new festival year

One of Wimberley’s largest annual events, the 24th annual Butterfly Festival, will take place this Saturday at the EmilyAnn Theatre and Gardens after a two year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspiration of Butterfly Festival came when a young man released a butterfly at the cemetery where EmilyAnn was buried on her birthday.

“Butterfly Day was started after the death of our daughter Emily-Ann,” Ann Roling said. “Her following birthday, I was surprised by a young man that had brought over a beautiful butterfly that had just hatched, and released it at the cemetery. It gave me hope of ‘What a great moment for those who have lost people and for those who are celebrating spring or Earth Day. We started with 36 butterflies that first year, and it has grown now into the releasing just short of 5,000 butterflies.”

Throughout the day, Butterflies will be released with the help of the people to help care for the butterflies who were in their infant stages.

“We will distribute them in our homemade cages that we constructed here,” Rolling said, “We send them out to over 250 classrooms, a few nursing homes, and a few businesses. The idea is that students, educators, and business owners will be able to watch the process then bring them back here knowing what time their individual cage will be released. All day long we will be releasing butterflies into the air every 30 minutes.”

Butterfly Festival will also recognize Ashley Richmond as the 2019 Artist of the Year whose design is featured on the 2022 Butterfly T-Shirt.

The festival will also include a bounce house, arts and crafts, face painting and a train ride, which will all open after the opening ceremonies.

To participate in these activities, a purchase of a wristband or Butterfly Bucks/cash will be required.

Admission into the Butterfly Festival is free, but donation boxes will be spread out throughout the park.