Children's Festival: 25 years of delight
The 25th anniversary of the Philadelphia International Children's Festival will be celebrated at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, featuring indoor performances and outdoor activities today and Saturday.
The 25th anniversary of the Philadelphia International Children's Festival will be celebrated at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, featuring indoor performances and outdoor activities today and Saturday.
Free outdoors are arts and crafts projects for children provided by Project Synergy, a nonprofit arts education initiative. The Give & Take Jugglers, back by popular demand, will perform with Clowns Without Borders. On Saturday, the Clay Studio will give free lessons on creating monoprints with clay.
Indoor performances include Break! The Urban Funk Spectacular, in which dancers trace 30 years of hip-hop. Storyteller and author Antonio Sacre will entertain. Audiences can learn the history of blues music in a stage performance of Blues Journey, the children's book by Walter Dean Myers, adapted by Jerome Hairston.
Cathy & Marcy, folk banjo artists and two-time Grammy winners, and hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon will perform and collaborate in a banjo-meets-hip-hop performance.
Other indoor productions are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites, The Lost World, Hangin' With the Giants, and more. Low-cost, kid-friendly catered cuisine from the Hinge Cafe will be available.
Strawberries at Peddler's
Peddler's Village presents its 40th annual Strawberry Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The festival, held each May, celebrates the harvest with strawberry-themed activities and entertainment. Featured will be a strawberry pie-eating contest on the Main Green, face painting, caricature, and balloon sculpting. Children can play in the Daisy Jug Band and learn to create harmonies with the line kazoo, scrub board, washtub, and garden hose. Soul Custody will perform family-friendly rock-and-roll, the Mount Laurel Bluegrass Band will perform, and samples of strawberry treats, preserves and fresh berries will be available.
Reopening with a splash
The Sesame Place season opens Saturday with a new water attraction, the Count's Splash Castle, the park's largest attraction ever. The 38,000-square-foot castle has 90 play elements including a 1,000-gallon 8-foot tipping bucket, multiple water slides, water curtains, bridges, hydro blasters, bubbler jets, and water wheels. Other rides are Blast Off in Elmo's World, Sky Splash in Twiddlebug Land, and play activities like the challenging three-story Nets 'n' Climbs in Big Bird's Court.