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All about kids By Jim Flint For Revels Jul 11, 2019 12:00 AM A A It will be all about kids in Jacksonville July 13-15 at the 53rd annual Children’s Festival when the Storytelling Guild of Jackson County takes over the Britt Gardens and Pavilion for three days of family fun, crafts and activities. It’s a magical celebration of creativity and imagination that typically attracts about 10,000 attendees. Festival hours are 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday. Admission is $3 per person per day. Activities are free. This year’s theme is “Dragon Mission,” with special agents and investigations taking center stage. Dragons have been a theme of the festival for years. Artist Pat Blair has created a logo for 2019 featuring a dragon dressed up as a hard-boiled detective. “There will be spy training booths,” said publicity chair Lara Knackstedt. “Kids can put on their special agent fedora hats, grab their magnifying glasses, and hunt for clues to unlock prizes.” The big draw is all the fun unlocked by more than 30 hands-on art, craft and science activities. For the young and the young at heart, the festival is designed to get the creative juices flowing. “There will be face painting, mural art, leathercraft, carpentry, clay work, panning for ‘gold,’ nature crafts, candle making, bead work, sand art, pottery, woodworking, puppet making, easel art and making macaroni necklaces,” said Knackstedt, pausing to take a big breath. “Plus, there will be science activities — volcanoes, the science of bubbles, insects and more.” Things will be happening on the Britt stage, as well. Performances throughout the day will feature dancing, gymnastics, music, karate demonstrations and audience participation activities. A dance party will take place on the stage at the end of each daily session. Wandering the grounds will be entertainers, clowns, jugglers and Festival Queen Lona Dillard with her court of princesses and knights. “Lona remembers attending the festival as a child,” said Knackstedt. A festival queen is selected each year as a way of honoring a guild member for her service. Kids who want to serve in the court wear little crowns and accompany the queen as she visits with festival attendees. As an extension of a year-round effort, there will be collection crates at the festival’s three gates for donations to the guild’s book drive. “We welcome new or gently used books,” said Knackstedt. “During the year, we collect about 6,000 books to distribute to children in need.” The guild is looking for board books for babies, read-aloud books, easy-reader books, picture books, and books for older children. The Britt grounds stay neat and clean during the festival, largely due to the daily feeding of the litter-eating dragons, Rosabelle and Pebbles. The large, brightly painted wooden figures have wide-open mouths, ready to gobble up trash. Kids climb a short staircase, toss in litter, and hear the dragons talk to them. All that activity can work up an appetite, so there’s the Dragon Belly Deli with snacks, cotton candy, hot dogs and other festival foods. “We keep the prices low,” Knackstedt said. Families can hitch a ride from parking areas to the grounds on the Jacksonville Trolley, which will run start to finish every day. The Britt Gardens and Pavilion, at 350 S. First St., is the site of the annual Britt Music Festival, which takes a holiday during the Children’s Festival. More than 500 volunteers are involved in putting on the festival, including members of the Medford Rotary Club who help set up the canopies. Guild members, friends, parents and teens round out the large corps of helpers. All proceeds benefit the guild, a nonprofit organization. For more information and a link to a video about the festival, see storytellingguild.org. Jim Flint is a retired newspaper editor and publisher living in Ashland. Reach him at [email protected]. Kids at the Children’s Festival feed litter to dragons Rosabelle and Pebbles, who talk back to the kids, thanking them for their litter "snack." Photo by Karin Dailey A map shows the layout of the Children's Festival.