outdoor events

Celebrating the history, culture, and people of Japan, the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the largest and oldest festivals of its kind in the United States. Your family can enjoy guided walking tours, bonsai, cooking, martial arts and origami demonstrations, sumo wrestling, and special activities for kids.

Join in on the fun at the South Grand Fall Fest. The festival will feature craft activities for kids, art activities from Craft Alliance, Contemporary Art Museum & MADE STL, plus more than 70 retail vendors, and live music. Admission is free.

The Best of Missouri Market at the Missouri Botanical Garden features more than 120 vendors offering handcrafted items, locally produced food, native plants, herbs, live music and local brews, plus a two-acre Kid's Corner with farm animals (like llamas, alpacas and sheep!), circus performers, face painting, crafts, and a pumpkin patch with decorating let by Perennial.

There may not be many plants blooming in January at the Missouri Botanical Garden, but that doesn't mean you can't find color in the garden.  At Great Green Adventures: Winter Color Walk, kids will search out common and not-so-common colors in the garden.

Toddlers and preschoolers will explore nature through tactile activities and crafts at this special "messy" event. Children, from walking to age 5, will have a blast getting messy while learning to discover the world around them. Reservations are recommended. Walk-ins are accepted based on availability.

A St. Louis family favorite – the Children's Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden – will close for the season on October 28-29, and children are invited to have an adventure exploring all the Garden has to offer before the gates close.

What do senses tell you? Kids will learn to let their senses guide them on a walk through the Sensory Garden at this month's Great Green Adventures.