The 8th annual Kingsland Wildflowers Festival, a nature-inspired arts celebration, welcomed hundreds of visitors over the weekend to explore Broadway Stages’ 24,000-square-foot green roof, listen to music, and see how the natural world and the artistic world often coincide and interact.
Attendees chose between guided nature walks and interactive workshops on conservation and sustainable practices. Local artists and musicians added to the festive atmosphere, creating a lively environment for both residents and visitors.
Entertainers captivated audiences with performances following this year’s theme “A Vibrant Tapestry,” which explored how important it is to approach diversity and cohabitation as a unified whole.
Kingsland Wildflowers partnered with NOoSPHERE Arts, an organization specializing in art and eco-awareness, to put on the festival and highlight the importance of native plants and their role in supporting local wildlife, particularly vital pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Other collaborators included the Newtown Creek Alliance, a group dedicated to revitalizing the Newton Creek, a federal Superfund site.
Willis Elkins, executive director of NCA, said the festival is an opportunity to boost community engagement, spotlight ecological significance and focuse on education.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to reconnect people with this waterway and the ecology that’s there,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “It’s a really sort of interesting situation where you have this sort of beautiful natural space surrounded by a more stark industrial scenery. It was really great to welcome so many people.”
Elkins said over 800 Brooklynites came out including first-timers and repeat guests. He and the rest of the team hope all those who attended walked away with a new appreciation of science and the arts.
