Pure Magic: The Rosemary House Fairy Festival Returns 9/12-9/13

I am just going to say it: this is one of my absolute favorite family events of the entire year.

The Rosemary House Fairy Festival feels like you wandered through a garden gate and accidentally ended up in another world, except this world has fairy wings, bubbles, mermaids, crafts, tiny treasures, music, dancing, woodland creatures and children who are completely convinced that every magical being they meet is absolutely, unquestionably real.

And for a few hours, so am I.

This will be our third year making the pilgrimage to fairyland. What began as a special adventure for River and me very quickly became our tradition, and this year I am ridiculously excited because Raina is finally old enough to really get in on the fun too.

If you have never been, let me save you some suspense: yes, it is every bit as whimsical and wonderful as it sounds.

Why We Keep Coming Back

Our first Fairy Festival was supposed to be a cute little mother-daughter outing.

Instead, River walked out a fully initiated woodland creature.

She traded a homemade wishing jar at the Toadstool Trading Post, collected magical treasures, got fairy hair and face paint, made crafts, attended a tiny tea party, met a mermaid and somehow ended up holding an actual crow. I left wondering why fairy tea parties are not covered by health insurance as preventative stress care.

Then we went back.

Last year brought bubbles, music, dancing, crafts, fairy-marketplace treasures, raptors, mermaids and strange delightful woodland beings tucked throughout the gardens. River was completely at home. Raina, still very much the fairy babe of the operation, chased bubbles, snoozed in the carrier and then somehow woke up the instant the Irish music began.

We came for the wings and bubbles, stayed for the music, and somehow left with Girl Scout cookies and new friends.

As one does in fairyland.

So What Actually Happens at a Fairy Festival?

This is not an event where kids walk around looking at decorations while adults repeatedly yell, “Don’t touch that.”

The kids are part of the magic.

The Rosemary House gardens become a collection of things to discover, make, trade, watch and join. There are fairy fashions and magical characters, bubbles and crafts, music and dancing, tiny treasures and plenty of opportunities for kids to lean all the way into make-believe.

Fairy fashions, ivy halos, magic wands, fairy crafts, pixie face painting, fairy hair, bubbles and more are all part of the weekend, and if your child arrives only mildly sparkly, I make no promises about their condition when you leave.

This Event Understands Little Kids

One of the things I love most about the Fairy Festival is that the whimsy is not precious.

Kids can interact. They can dress up. They can crawl toward something interesting, investigate a tiny door, get distracted by bubbles, make something weird, dance when nobody else is dancing and fully commit to whatever story is currently happening in their heads.

That is exactly what made River fall in love with it.

Everything feels scaled for little hands and big imaginations without being boring for the grown-ups following them around carrying seventeen crafts, a water bottle, three wands and somebody’s abandoned wings.

Bubbles Are Apparently a Major Fairy Food Group

I am fairly certain River could spend the entire festival doing nothing but chasing bubbles and still consider the day a tremendous success.

There is something about the gardens, costumes and bubbles floating through the trees that makes the whole place feel wildly more magical than the sum of its parts.

It is also approximately impossible to take a bad photo.

Fairies, Mermaids, Music & Other Important Business

Part of the fun is that you never quite know who you are going to encounter around the next corner.

One minute you are making a craft. The next, there is a mermaid. Then somebody starts dancing. Then a fairy appears. Then your preschooler has made a solemn pact with a mysterious woodland being and you are expected to respect the terms.

Fairy fashions, music, dancing and performances are woven throughout the weekend, giving families plenty to stop and watch between all the making, playing and wandering.

Tiny Treasures Have a Way of Multiplying

If your child is a collector of Very Important Tiny Objects, congratulations. You have found their homeland.

Between crafts, trading, vendors and magical little discoveries throughout the day, things accumulate quickly.

This is why one of my most important Fairy Festival tips has absolutely nothing to do with fairies:

Bring a tote bag.

You will thank me when you are not trying to hold two wings, four crafts, a mysterious gemstone, someone’s flower crown and half a cookie in the same hand.

Come Hungry

Fairy Food on the Fly is part of the fun too, with festival food and sweet treats available during the weekend.

And I will once again use my extremely powerful position as Local Mom With Website to advocate for the lentil BBQ.

It is genuinely good.

Last year we also somehow ended up with Girl Scout cookies, which felt less like a purchase and more like a gift bestowed upon us by the woodland spirits.

My First-Timer Fairy Festival Tips

Follow the Fairy Festival on Facebook See Official Festival Details

And This Year, There Are Two Fairy Girls

This may be the part I am most excited about.

When I first brought River here, she was barely three. She was this tiny, glittery, mud-loving fairy dragon who took the entire experience completely seriously.

Watching her walk into those gardens and discover a place where the grown-ups were actively encouraging her to believe in magic was one of those little parenting moments I tucked away forever.

It quickly became our thing.

Our Fairy Festival.

And now Raina is finally old enough to really join us.

I cannot wait to see whether she chases bubbles, attempts to adopt a mermaid, dances with a fairy, eats her body weight in treats or simply toddles through the gardens assuming this is what the regular world looks like.

Probably all of the above.

We’ll See You in Fairyland

Macaroni KID will be there again this year, and we absolutely cannot wait.

Yes, this is sponsored coverage. But I cannot overstate how genuinely we love this event. It became a tradition before there was a sponsorship attached to this year’s article, and I would be yelling about it either way.

If you see us wandering around covered in glitter with two tiny fairies who have acquired seventeen mysterious treasures and refuse to leave, please come say hello.

There are plenty of wonderful family events on our calendar every year.

This one has simply become ours.

Come for the fairies. Stay for the bubbles. Bring something to trade. Eat the lentil BBQ. Let your kid wear the wings.

And for one afternoon, believe them when they tell you the garden is magic.