Roots & Wings Festival Returns to Austin With More Than 100 Events Across the City

By Lucero Corona

Reporting Texas

Entrance to the North Austin Community Garden, where the community came together for a garden tour celebrating local nature.Lucero Corona/ReportingTexasTV

From butterflies and bees to a scavenger hunt for termites, Austin’s citywide Roots & Wings Festival offers families hands-on ways to explore and learn about the creatures that keep the city green.

The festival was created in 2018 after combining Arbor Day and Monarch Day celebrations, aiming to attract more people to community events that highlight trees, pollinators and local green spaces. Originally, it was held as a pop-up event only at Zilker Botanical Garden.

Since then, Roots & Wings has grown into a citywide celebration, bringing families, volunteers and local organizations together to explore and protect Austin’s environment.

Tucked behind the North Austin YMCA, the North Austin Community Garden was the site of the festival’s local kickoff. Jessica Tessler, a librarian at the Little Walnut Creek Library, helped bring the festival to the neighborhood after noticing few events were available for families in the area.

“This year, I feel the community has bounced back from COVID and is ready for a big festival again,” Tessler said. “The Rundberg area is sometimes known for its urban aspects, but there are a lot of families here with kids, and there is nature hidden in little pockets.”

In partnership with the North Austin Community Garden, Tessler and local volunteers hosted the kickoff celebration, which featured arts and crafts, seed-ball making, face painting and drumming.

More than 10 community partners set up booths, including University of Texas’ Bevo Beekeeping Society, which taught children and adults about the importance of bees.

The Bevo Beekeeping Society houses three to four hives on campus where they show people how to beekeep and the world of pollination. Since the hive is honey bees, the society sells honey in local farmers’ markets.

“Festivals like these help people learn about bees and why they are so important to our city,” said Anna Holme, president of the Bevo Beekeeping Society.

The North Austin celebration is just one of more than 100 free, family-friendly events happening across the city through Nov. 2. Participants can visit gardens, attend educational booths both indoors and outdoors or take part in hands-on activities like seed planting. Some sites even offer free native plants that attract monarch butterflies to home gardens. 

“Taking advantage of these parts of gardens and green spaces we have in the city of Austin is so important.” Tessler said.

Events like these remind families that Austin’s green spaces are more than places to visit — they are places to grow, learn and build community together.

For a full schedule of events, visit rootsandwingsfest.com.