Originary Arts returns to Garden Museum’s family festival, this time inviting you to make masks and moves inspired by the weird and wonderful world of BUGS! Join our Ugly Bug Ball parade and create your own bug alter ego with paper, card, ribbon and lots of imagination.

This summer the Garden Museum will be transformed into a wonderland of circus, storytelling and magic for the Festival of Fairytales, perfect for children aged 4 – 10 with big imaginations and a love of magic, mystery, bugs and nature.

COME JOIN THE UGLY BUG BALL!

What will your Ugly Bug Ball alter-ego be? Make masks and develop moves inspired by insects, arachnids and creepy crawlies featured in global fairytales, folklore and fables. Play with paper and colour to make unique masks with Originary Arts. Then get ready to proudly parade what you’ve made around the festival! 

Set against the magical backdrop of the Garden Museum’s home of a medieval church and lush green gardens, join us to travel through a world of bees, bugs and creepy crawlies.

Children will be free to explore the Festival of Fairytales and enjoy pop-up performers, cooking and craft workshops, storytelling, live music and circus performances, or get their hands dirty with a gardening activity lead by the museum’s gardening team.

There is an optional dress code: come dressed as your favourite insect friends! We are collaborating with Waggle Dance company to help you waggle like a bee, wiggle and wriggle like a worm, shake like a beetle and crawl like a snail in the parade!

Tickets £12 Adults, £5 Children (under 16), Under 4s free - programme and tickets here

Image: Photo by Francis Augusto; illustration by James Crosland-Mills