OXNARD — The Oxnard Performing Arts Center Corporation (OPAC) is proud to present its 2nd Annual NATIVE PLANT FEST on Saturday, January 21st from 11AM-4PM. The event brings together our community to celebrate and showcase local plant-inspired culture, food, traditions, and creativity! This festival is community-led by plant enthusiasts of diverse backgrounds who will share their plants, services, artwork, culinary creations, products, educational resources, and much more!
November through the Spring is prime planting season in California and OPAC wants to bring together seasoned and newbie plant aficionados for this special event.
Long-time native plant horticulturalist Antonio Sanchez and Native Plant Fest committee members remarks, “It’s so important to be bringing this Native Plant Festival idea ‘back’ to Oxnard. No doubt, local native folks have been holding annual gatherings, and continue to hold gatherings, every year around local plant harvests, rain events. and for countless other reasons. The OPAC’sNative Plant Festival uses native plants to help bring local native communities, recent immigrant communities, and many Other Southern California populations together around one central theme – learning about the native plants we need, love, grow and try to protect on a daily basis. Whether it’s landscaping with native plants, eating local plants, praying and singing with traditional plants, or growing a few local plants in pots to attract monarch butterflies, there are tons of ways local folks can help get native plants back into local gardens.”
Guests will enjoy:
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An Opening Blessing and Land Acknowledgment by Chumash Elder, Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, and KC
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Vendors selling art, crafts, plants, garden accessories, food and more!
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Native Plant Cooking Demonstration with Antonio Sanchez
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Interactive activities by Ventura Land Trust and Santa Monica Mountain Fund
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A Plant Lounge experience and art installation
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Nonprofit exhibitors offering free plants, information and resources
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Special musical performances include singer-songwriter Natalia Alyse and busker Vincent Snyder
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The event’s headlining performance is by Sage Against the Machine- native plant-themed music and stories about living and working with California native plants. From the punk rock-inspired ‘Kill Your Lawn!’ to the tragic love ballad ‘Your Love is Like a Manzanita’ and the toe-tapping ‘Rare Plant Blues’, native plant horticulturists and musicians Evan Meyer, Antonio Sanchez, and Nicole Calhoun promise to keep the event lively and fun. Their unique collection of original songs and stories explore native plant conservation and horticultural themes in a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but always entertaining fashion.
There’s plenty for kids to do too, including seed bomb-making, multicultural storytime, and more! The first 500 attendees will receive a free native plant thanks to the Santa Monica Mountains Fund.
Workshops cover topics such as Acorns for Kids (Chumash Cultural Activity), Terracotta Pot Painting + Planting, and Native Flower Crowns.
The event is free and open to the public. More information can be found at: oxnardperformingarts.com/native-plant-fest-2023
Thank you to this year’s sponsor: The Port of Hueneme.
OPAC’s Native Plant Fest
Saturday, January 21, 2023 from 11 am to 4 pm
@ Oxnard Performing Arts & Convention Center
800 Hobson Way, Oxnard, CA 93030
Free admission! Family friendly!