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Wings & Wild Things Festival
October 5, 2025 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Celebrate Iowa’s natural world during the second year of the Wings & Wild Things Festival. Wings & Wild things showcases the wild and wonderful flora and fauna of our region, as well as outdoor recreation activities in our area. Grab food from local food trucks and enjoy a day spent exploring Johnson County’s Kent Park.
The event will feature hands-on learning activities, guided exploration, and animal meet & greets. Meet a live owl, study Iowa’s threatened box turtles, get your hands dirty making milkweed seed balls, pick up native plants for your yard, explore eco arts practices, and more. Visitors can also enjoy guided bird walks, mushroom forays, and fishing activities.
Local food vendors will be on site throughout the day!
Activities will include:
– Live raptor meet & greets
– Kayaking
– Plein air painting
– Guided bird walks (10:30 & 11:30 am)
– Native Plant Sale
– Sandcastle contest! (10 am – 12:30 pm – details below)
– Reptile meet & greets
– Eco-arts
– Mushroom forays and specimen study
– Fossil exploration
– Fishing
– Pollinator education
– Hands-on milkweed seed ball making
– Animal Biofacts education stations
– Tree discovery station
– Prairie study activities
– Mysteries of migration activity stations
& more
Event Partners:
The Wings & Wild Things Festival is made possible through partnership with numerous local conservation-minded organizations. Partner groups include Arts Iowa City’s ArtiFactory; Backyard Abundance; Bur Oak Land Trust; Extant Relatives; Indian Creek Nature Center; Iowa City Bird Club; Iowa City Parks & Recreation; Iowa Master Naturalists; Johnson County Planning, Development, & Sustainability; Johnson County Master Gardeners of Iowa; Kirkwood Community College’s Women in Natural Resources Club; Land Alliance Folk School; Milkweed Matters; OUTdoors Iowa City; Pollinator Partnership; Prairie States Mushroom Club; Raptology; Trees Forever; Troutleaf Native Plants; US Army Corps of Engineers; the University of Iowa Rec Services; and others.
Food:
Be sure to bring an appetite! Local food vendors will be on site cooking up delicious food to enjoy throughout this event. Iowa City’s Griddle Me This and Luna’s Tacos of Iowa City will both be cooking up delicious food.
Live Music:
10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.- Pigs & Clover
Pigs and Clover is an Americana band that blends genres of folk, indie rock and alt-country. Catchy and often humorous, their original songs feature strong lyrics, vocal harmony, guitars aplenty and new-time electric harmonica.
