The bounce house, obstacle course and giant slide inflatables will offer crazy fun for the high-energy set. Monty the python will lead a cast of live animals — both native and exotic species — from the Woodcock Nature Center. There’ll be gaga ball, carnival games, crafts, air brush tattoos. Organizations ranging from the Keeler Tavern to the March of Dimes will set up booths with offerings from yoga to face painting and presentations on topics ranging from photography to martial arts.
Kids Festival, the Chamber of Commerce’s annual celebration of Ridgefield as a famously family-friendly town, is scheduled for this Saturday, April 25, from 10 to 4 in Ballard Park. (In case of rain it’s Sunday, April 26, same hours.)
“Kids Festival — this is our fourth year, and each year it has grown and each year it seems the families are more aware and so they seek us out,” said Susan Ahlstrom, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to come out and spend an afternoon in the park — especially after the long winter.
“It’s a very feel-good event,” she said. “Last year there were several families who invited other families.”
Bringing people to Ridgefield’s Ballard Park and Main Street, to town in general, is a big part of what the Chamber tries to do.
“It’s one of the reasons the Chamber of Commerce sponsors events like this, so we can give families a reason to come into town and dine here and play here,” Ahlstrom said.
“We had one family, they were so excited with the event and the community they were going to come back and look at real estate — they wanted to relocate to Ridgefield.”
Henryk Teraszkiewicz, director of the Woodcock Nature Center, on the Ridgefield-Wilton line, could understand why.
“Ridgefield is just the best place for kids,” he said. “For a parent to raise children, I can’t think of a better town.”
Kids Festival is free to enter, and most of the booths and offerings will be free.
“We have over 30 exhibitors,” said Ahlstrom.
The offerings cover a broad range, from bubble-painting sponsored by the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art to the Mountain Workshop promoting summer adventure activities that range from canoeing to caving.
Inflatables
There will be a charge for the “inflatables” — the bounce house, the obstacle course, the giant slide — with the income going to the Chamber and its community programs.
“It’s $1 per ticket, so $1 per turn, or they can get a wrist band for $10 and have unlimited bounces and slides,” Ahlstrom said.
The inflatables are being provided by Kiwi Country Day Camp of nearby Mahopac, N.Y. The camp is a presenting sponsor of the Kids Festival, along with the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce and the Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Department.
“If families are looking for an authentic, traditional summer experience, that is what we provide,” said Adam Wallach, the camp’s director. Activities at Kiwi include full sports and creative arts programs, rock wall climbing, a zip line, swimming, boating, tennis, archery.
In the summer, the day camp’s bus has stops in three Ridgefield neighborhoods.
Woodcock naturalists
The Woodcock Center expects to have several naturalists at the festival with live animals for kids to interact with, including painted, box and snapping turtles, as well as Monty the python.
“Our whole point is reconnecting local families to the nature that’s in their own back yards,” said Teraszkiewicz, the Woodcock center’s director.
“If there’s that connection, it’s an impetus to protect the environment. The phrase we go with is: ‘Raising healthy children for a healthy environment.’”
Another environmental program will be a recycling presentation offered jointly by the Garden of Ideas and Winters Brothers Waste Systems.
“There’ll be recycling that day,” Ahlstrom said. “It’s part demonstration, part education.”
A couple of participants are charitable efforts led by students.
Campbell Kinsman, a Ridgefielder who goes to Convent of the Sacred Heart, will have a booth for BearHugs Inc., which provides care packages for children of men and women serving the U.S. military. People are invited to donate and write notes that the kids get with their packages.
Ridgefield High School students will represent the March of Dimes and its efforts to assure that expectant mothers give birth to healthy babies.
Fun in town
Kids Festival is part of the Chamber’s effort to get kids outside and families into town.
“We encourage people to eat in town, have lunch in town and come to the park,” Ahlstrom said.
“There’s a wide variety. It can be from a quick hot dog on the go to a beautiful sit-down on the sidewalk.”
The Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Department will take part in Kids Festival, offering information on Recreation Center memberships, Adventure Day Camp, and the department’s programs for people of all ages.
Active kids
Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Director Paul Roche said the department shares the goal of seeing families in the park, and kids outside being active and having fun.
“We are so excited to be partnering with the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce and Kiwi Country Day Camp in presenting Kids Festival,” he said. “It’s going to be a great day for families to have some fun.
“Our goal at Ridgefield Parks and Recreation is to get people of all ages outside and active. We have so many wonderful parks and playgrounds in our town.
“Ballard Park is truly the gem of Main Street, and it will soon be featuring a new playground called the Imagination Station. This amazing play space will be innovative, accessible and inclusive. Kids of all ages are going to love swinging, spinning, climbing, sliding, rocking, and socializing here.
“Our beautiful town also boasts a new Spray Bay water playground at the Recreation Center and Martin Park Beach,” Roche said.
“Ridgefield is such a special place, and events such as Kids Festival really bring our community together.”