On Saturday, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. (KDB) will play host to the 23rd-annual Denton Redbud Festival at the Denton Civic Center (321 E. McKinney Street) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This award-winning community festival – Denton’s official Arbor Day celebration – will feature dozens of vendor booths with plant sales, home improvement products and local/handmade crafts, and special activities for Arbor Day. Admission is FREE.
Denton city officials and members of the City Council will help kick off the festival with a ceremonial Arbor Day tree planting in Quakertown Park at 10 a.m. Other activities include a free tree giveaway, a live TRASHion Runway Show at noon, educational workshops, and live music performances by A.M. Ramblers, Tony Ferraro, and Kim Nall & the Fringe. A Kids Zone with bounce houses, face painting, and a Turtle Discovery exhibit will be available for young festival-goers. Local printer Pan Ector Industries will be live printing exclusive Redbud Festival and Keep Denton Beautiful merchandise all day.
As the official Arbor Day event for Denton, a variety of Arbor Day-focused activities and educational opportunities will be offered as part of this year’s festival. A full schedule of workshops and activities for this year’s Redbud Festival will be released at www.kdb.org in advance of the event. Highlights include a special tree-themed story time for young children and their caregivers at 11 a.m., hosted by the Denton Public Library. The first 50 children to arrive for the story time will receive a copy of the children’s book The Happiness Tree.
The Redbud Festival traces its roots back to an annual Texas Woman’s University festival that was held from the 1930s until 1981 to celebrate the school’s beautification and tree planting efforts. In 1994, Keep Denton Beautiful gave the festival new life in honor of Denton’s designation by the 73rd Texas State Legislature as the "Redbud Capital of Texas." Each year, Keep Denton Beautiful celebrates this designation by hosting the Denton Redbud Festival, and providing in-school Arbor Day presentations and Redbud tree seedlings to third grade students through the Children’s Arbor Day program.
The Denton Redbud Festival is presented by, and benefits, the nonprofit Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. The event is made possible with support from the City of Denton Watershed Protection Program, Huffines Subaru/Kia of Denton, City of Denton Solid Waste & Recycling Department, Denton Municipal Electric, The Denton Record-Chronicle, City of Denton Parks & Recreation Department, and Pan Ector Industries.
