2023 Halloween Art & Nature Festival
** REGISTRATION REQUIRED. The event is FREE but SPACE IS LIMITED - Register at https://bit.ly/HalloweenFestival23 **
Atelier de la Nature, a twenty-five-acre nature reserve and eco-educational campus, invites all children and families to the 2023 Halloween Art & Nature Festival, a one-day free event to celebrate Halloween, Louisiana's special natural surroundings, the Gulf of Mexico and planet Earth, through art, music, food and science.
This year’s festival theme is “The Deep” (deep sea life, deep roots both cultural and botanical, deep time, deep traditions, and more). Festival goers will have the opportunity to meet special guests including:
● Award-winning Special Effects Artist, Chuck Varga, Neptune the official King of the Coney Island Day Mermaid Parade coming from New York City
● Walter Sandifier III, Spy Boy of the Beautiful Creole Apache Mardi Gras Indian Tribe from New Orleans.
● Award-winning Playwright Lisa D’Amour from New Orleans.
** Registration required for morning and afternoon sessions. The event is free but space is limited - Register at https://bit.ly/HalloweenFestival23 **
This year’s activities so far include:
● Meet mermaids, buccaneers, and King Neptune
● A life-sized whale skeleton sculpture
● Mardi Gras Indian water Inspired performance
● Meet mythical aquatic characters from the Ocean Filibuster Performance
● Deep roots prairie grass sculptural installation
● Giant Glow in the Gulf of Mexico lantern-shark and deep-water anglerfish disco ball sculptures
● There Was an Old Mermaid That Swallowed a Shark Game
● Fossilized nano-plankton exhibition
● Magnificent Megalodon Interactive sculpture
● Creatures from the Deep Special Make Up effects demo
● Monumental Jellyfish sculptures and nautical maize
● Meet marine biologists and other Gulf of Mexico Scientists
● Geological core samples exhibition and outreach program
● S.T.E.A.M. activities with Mermaidens
● Deep Wonder augmented reality program
● Deep Explorations Activity Book making workshop and give-away
● Deeply parasitic larval mussel exhibition and activity
● Interactive deep water coral projected installation
● Preserved deep-sea specimens’ exhibition and drawing workshop
● Spine-tingling Storytelling about Jean Lafitte and the pirates of Louisiana
● DIY Aquanaut Costume workshop and submarine sculptures using recycled/up-cycled materials
● Geothermal Energy outreach demo
● Life Aquatic and other deeply inspired music
● Live snakes and other reptiles
● Live spiders and other creepy crawlers with arthropod inspired robots
● Traditional Cajun and Creole cooking using locally sourced ingredients
● Sustainable seafood cooking demo
● Trick or Treating
● Abyss Zone Pumpkin Decorating
+ More!
Additional Event Information:
The 2023 Master of Ceremonies will be Renella Rose Champagne of KRVS’s “Lost in Love” program and King Neptune from the New York City Coney Island Day Parade.
Performances by Spy Boy Walter Sandifier III, DJ Spicy Tuna and others curated by Laura Huval of Sweet Cecilia and Al Berard Memorial Music Fund.
This year’s food will be prepared by Chef Colt Patin (a Certified Executive Chef and Certified Chef Instructor), his students from the Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, and the Cub Scouts Pack 301 (Breaux Bridge, LA), who will serve Cajun and Creole dishes prepared with local and seasonal ingredients.
Dino-Birding for Beginners
***THIS EVENT IS FREE BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED at https://bit.ly/DinoBirding23***
Join us for an introductory bird walk led by Patti Holland and avian evolution program to make dino-bird drawings.
This is a family-friendly event.
Atelier de la Nature offers multilingual accessibility (French/Spanish/English). Please contact us for other accessibility requests.
***THIS EVENT IS FREE BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED at https://bit.ly/DinoBirding23
Fête de la Nature - BioBlitz and Crawfish Benefit 2023 with music performance by Sweet Crude
“Fête de la Nature - BioBlitz and Crawfish Benefit” is family-friendly event to celebrate Acadiana’s special natural surroundings, through art, music, food and science. This free event will feature a performance by SWEET CRUDE.
Prairie Planting Day
Join us for an afternoon of planting prairie species with discussions on habitat restoration and creation of a community prairie artwork.
“Eat Your Yard!" A Wild Edibles Foraging Walk and Cooking Demo
Join us for an educational foraging walk to learn about wild edibles, medicinal plants and mushrooms lead by John Nettles of the Slowhike Company. Atelier's Aurore Ballengée will then lead a cooking with wild edibles demo and tasting.
Halloween Art & Nature Festival
A free event to celebrate Halloween, Louisiana's special natural surroundings and planet Earth, through art, music, food and science.
Fête de la Nature - BioBlitz and Crawfish Benefit
Fête de la Nature - BioBlitz and Crawfish Benefit, with FREE music performances by The Lost Bayou Ramblers and Dickie Landry!