Learn how to Plan a Water Festival for your community, school or organization!
Water festivals are day-long educational events designed to teach children about the importance of water in their community and daily lives, as well as how to protect their local watershed and prevent pollution.
Cranbrook Institute of Science hosts the Rouge River Water Festival for Oakland County 4th and 5th grade students living in the Rouge River watershed every September. Visit our Rouge Waterfest page for more information.
DTE Energy Foundation's Community Waterfests! Program
The program offers an opportunity for communities around the state to develop water festivals to educate the public about protecting their local watershed and the Great Lakes. Institute of Science staff help communities to design and organize water festivals with local partners. Funding is also available to cover costs associated with the first year of the festival.
Waterfests! are a dynamic community-based tool to teach and inspire the current and next generation how to care for their local environment and beyond. They help to build and strengthen partnerships in the water management, education and environmental community.
Waterfests! partners include:
- Drain and Water Resource Commissioners
- Municipalities
- School Districts
- Community Colleges and Universities
- Botanical Gardens, Museums and Nature Centers
We have a decade of experience in executing water festivals to share with your organization. For more information on how to develop a custom water festival in your community, please contact:
Lisa Appel
Coordinator of Watershed Education
lappel@cranbrook.edu
Ph: (248) 645.3223
Make a Splash for our Future: Great Lakes Water Festivals
An introductory video on water festivals (5 minutes).
Why a Water Festival?
Protecting local watersheds depend on educating the people who live in them. Often the public doesn't understand the connection between their household behaviors and the health of the Great Lakes and groundwater resources. Water festivals are an effective tool to teach the next generation how to care for the environment.
Water festivals are educational and fun! They offer interactive water celebrations where students explore a diversity of water-related topics, including the water cycle, drinking water sources, water quality, erosion, groundwater, pollution prevention and more.
Typically, water festivals have structured learning stations and exhibits where students actively engage in hands-on water activities and investigations. Local water resource experts are used as instructors, creating bridges between teachers, students and local professionals.
Water Festivals in Michigan
Rouge River Water Festival at UM-Dearborn
Rouge River Water Festival at Cranbrook Institute of Science
Children’s Water Festival in East Lansing
Battle Creek Children's Water Festival
Public Water Festivals
MI Earth Day Fest, Rochester, MI
Green Street Fair, Plymouth, MI
Earth Day Activities in Michigan!
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