Event Host Toolkit
2024 Roots & Wings Festival Partner Toolkit
The 2024 Roots & Wings Festival focuses on amplifying the efforts of organizations across our community helping connect Austinites with nature.
On this page, find expectations for hosting a Roots & Wings Community Event and resources to help make your event successful.
Expectations for Roots & Wings Festival Event Hosts.
EVENT HOSTS: Event hosts are the foundation of the Roots & Wings Festival’s success. As an event host you are helping to build a stronger, more resilient community and ecosystem.
Please keep these expectations front of mind as as you prepare to apply to be part of the Festival:
Your event is aligned with the Festival’s purpose of celebrating trees, plants, fungi, soil health, pollinators, birds, bats, and more!
Your event helps to connect members of your community to each other and to nature.
Your event is held during the Festival dates, Saturday, October 19th through Sunday, November 3rd, 2024.
Your event is open to the public and there is no cost to attend and/or participate.
Your event is held within the city of Austin.
Your event must be advertised as a Roots & Wings Festival Event and follow all marketing requirements.
After your event, you’ll be required to complete a post-event survey. This will help us learn what worked well and what could have gone better to continue to support partners in the future.
Marketing your Roots & Wings Festival Event
As an official Roots & Wings Festival partner, it’s important that those attending your event understand that it is part of a larger experience. One way we can do this is by using unified messaging when sharing about the Festival. The following requirements and resources will help ensure a more cohesive experience for all attendees.
FESTIVAL NAME
Always use the correct name when speaking or writing about the event: Roots & Wings Festival. The ampersand (&) should be included in all written text, apart from hashtags, which will not allow it. For hashtags, you may spell out the “and” (i.e., #RootsAndWingsATX)
FESTIVAL LOGO
Please include the Festival event logo on all materials related to your event. The logo is available in orange, dark brown, and white. The orange logo is preferred for all materials, but we encourage you to use the alternate colors to ensure a high enough contrast with any background you use.
FONTS
When possible, please try to use Roboto Slab which can be downloaded for free from Google Fonts. Roboto Slab is also a standard font in Canva.
COLORS
Please try to use the following color scheme in all for marketing materials.
HEX: #33232b
RGB: 51, 35, 43
HEX: #ef8c2a
RGB: 239, 140, 42
Additional Marketing Resources
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Follow these guidelines when creating a Facebook Event Page for your event.
EVENT NAME
Your Facebook Event should use the format of: [Your Event Title]: A Roots & Wings Festival Event. For example:
Build Your Own Pollinator Garden: A Roots & Wings Festival Event
Ask an Arborist: A Roots & Wings Festival Event
EVENT CO-HOSTS
Please designate Austin Nature in the City as a co-host for your event. Learn how to add a co-host.
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Please begin your event description with the following:
We’re excited to be hosting an official Roots & Wings Festival Event! The Roots & Wings Festival is held from Wednesday, October 18, through Saturday, November 5, and is a community-wide celebration honoring Arbor Day and Monarch Appreciation Day in Austin. Join us in celebrating the Roots & Wings Festival on [YOUR EVENT DATE] with [YOUR EVENT NAME].
After this initial text, you may add in more of what your attendees can expect at your event. For example: nature walks, family-friendly crafts, etc.
End your event description with the following: The Roots & Wings Festival is brought to you by the City of Austin and community partners. Learn more and find additional events at www.rootsandwingsfest.com.
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Use the resources below to support your marketing needs and make your event a success. To create your own version, open a linked template and select File. Then select Make a Copy and you’re ready to customize the template. You can download it to your computer when you’re done modifying your copy and then upload it to Facebook or Instagram.
Advertise Your Event with a post on Facebook! Use this template from Canva to create your own social media post.
Create a custom Facebook cover image & event banner with this Canva template .
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It’s important to ensure that attendees know that your event is part of a larger Festival. If you have any planned or scheduled remarks or announcements during your event, please include the following:
This event is part of the Roots & Wings Festival, Austin’s annual celebration of Arbor Day and Monarch Appreciation Day. The Roots & Wings Festival is held each fall and is sponsored by the City of Austin and partners. This year’s Festival runs through November 5th. You can learn more and find more related events by visiting www.rootsandwingsfest.com.
Find Program Support
You’re not in this alone! Across Austin, there is a wealth of knowledge on trees, pollinators, and nature to help you run a successful event. Use this section to connect to resources for activity ideas, community experts, and more.
If you have a resource to share, please click here and let us know! We’ll do our best to add it to the Partner Toolkit.
Help Attendees Learn the Life Cycle of a Butterfly
A member of the City of Austin DSD Urban Forestry Youth Program can come to your event to lead this educational activity! Use familiar cooking ingredients to create a colorful art project that details the lifecycle of a butterfly. This activity typically lasts 45-60 minutes and is appropriate for children K-5. Want to bring this activity to your event?
Want to bring this activity to your event? Contact the Youth Forest Council.
Explore More Activity Ideas
From scavenger hunts to crafts for all ages to guides to lead your own nature walk, we’ve curated some of our Anytime Actions to provide you with instructions, printables, and guides that can easily be scaled up to bring to your event! Check out the list!
Host a Kids’ Climb
The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Forestry Team can bring equipment and staff to your site to facilitate a tree-climbing experience for children in grades K-12! Kids will be belayed using ropes and saddles using methods that are age-appropriate. A Kids’ Climb may last between one and six hours, depending upon the age and number of children participating. Site selection will be made in collaboration with the Urban Forestry Team.
Want to bring this activity to your event? Contact the Urban Forestry Team.
Community Resources
Free Seeds
Visit the Central Texas Seed Savers website to learn how you can get free seeds!
Ready to make your own seed balls? Check out this Seed Ball Recipe from Austin Parks Foundation.
Free Mulch
The City of Austin provides free mulch through the Austin Rsource and Recovery's Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center.
Tree Education Materials
Teach your community about trees, how to care for them, and what to do when they are not thriving by showcasing some signs and offering brochures from the City of Austin’s Urban Forest Program at your event.
Request materials from the Urban Forest Program.
Keep Austin Beautiful Resources
Keep Austin Beautiful provides a variety of free resources to support environmental stewardship, community service projects, environmental education, and public events.
Bat Related Questions?
Email Erin Cord of Bat Conservation International!
Request Materials for Your Event
*Materials are not guaranteed.
FREE 5-Gallon Trees and Tree Saplings!
Pick up free native and adapted, pollinator-friendly tree saplings to facilitate a tree planting at your event, courtesy of TreeFolks.
Contact TreeFolks staff to see about getting saplings for your event.
Invite Community Experts to Share Their Knowledge
Park Rangers
Park Rangers are ambassadors for Austin's park system that promote responsible recreation, cultivate stewardship, and conserve parks' cultural and natural resources for the benefit of our entire community. They are available to lead nature walks at your event, share resources, or provide helpful tips, activities, and education!
Rangers Kat Tombs and Jimmy Evans are excited to help you at this year’s Festival! Contact them today!
Urban Forest Stewards
Urban Forest Stewards are graduates of TreeFolks’ education program and active leaders in their communities. Invite one to your event to talk about tree biology and care, or lead a tree ID walk!
Steward Stephanie Simmons is eager to help you! Send her an email.
Vicki Blachman: Master Naturalist & Texas Master Gardener
Victoria is an experienced and enthusiastic Texas Master Gardener and Master Naturalist. As co-chair of PollinATX and a member of Austin’s Bee City USA initiative, Vicki is eager to teach your community about insects, pollinators, and more!
Contact Vicki to see about having her speak at your event.
Larry Franklin: Founder, Black Lives Veggies
Lifelong Austinite Larry Franklin founded Black Lives Veggies in summer 2020 as a way of teaching people of all income levels the art of gardening. Its premise is rooted in financial accessibility for prospective gardeners, achieved by lowering the costs of organic veggies and hosting educational classes to teach the craft to beginners.
Contact Larry to see about having him speak at your event.
Harvé Franks: Master Gardener & Performance Artist/Educator
Harvé is the Horticultural Specialist at The Carver Museum, teaching a variety of classes to the community. As a long-term garden and arts educator, Harvé often shares lessons she learned as a child at her grandparents’ farm in the historic St. John Freedmen’s Colony, and how that journey into the nature of the garden taught her how to nurture herself, others, and the planet. She also speaks on living off grid and her journey to food sustainability.
Contact Harvé about speaking at your event or sharing her expertise through activity!
Find an Event Space to Share
Carver Museum & Cultural Center on Saturday October 21st, 2023
Carver Museum & Cultural Center has space available for your event at their Pumpkin Carver event on Saturday, October 21, 2023, happening during the Roots & Wings Festival! If your event is family friendly, the Carver has space for up to 8 partner groups to join in the fun! Partner groups should be able to supply their own tent and tables if needed, however, assistance may be available depending on resources.
Contact Christine Pasculado and complete this form with event documnets attached if you'd like to reserve a spot!
Find Volunteers to Help at Your Event
Connect with UT Austin's OUTreach Student Volunteer Organization.
UT Austin’s OUTreach student organization members are available for event support! Up to 15 volunteers are available for events happening Fridays thru Sundays, preferably located in central Austin.
Contact Adrian J Fernandez to request volunteers.
Other Considerations for your Event
While not mandatory, we encourage you to please consider the following as you plan your Roots & Wings Festival events.
Including a Land Acknowledgment
At the Roots & Wings Festival, we wish to acknowledge, recognize, and respect the Indigenous Peoples who tended these lands before they were known as Austin, Texas. We acknowledge, with respect, that the land we are on is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Tonkawa, the Apache, the Ysleta del sur Pueblo, the Lipan Apache Tribe, the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians, the Coahuitlecan, and all other tribes not explicitly stated. The Roots & Wings Planning Committee has created a Festival-wide land acknowledgment in recognition that our work in nature-based programming sits in direct relationship to the genocide and forced removal of Indigenous Peoples from their land and humanity’s long history of inequality and injustice perpetuated by legacies of colonialism and slavery, centered on the exploitation of people, land, and nature.
At the start of any programming you plan to offer, we encourage you to consider the inclusion of your own land acknowledgment. Below we’ve offered some resources to help you understand why and how to do so.
Please note: Land acknowledgments do not exist in the past tense. Rather, the structures and systems that led to multiple genocides being perpetrated against Indigenous People continue to exist in our world and in our work. The first step in considering the inclusion of a land acknowledgment should be a process of self-reflection.
- A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement: From the Native Governance Center
- Indigenous History and Land Acknowledgments: Resource Guide adapted by Celine Rendon for public use
Creating a Zero Waste Event
Reducing our impact on nature and the environment is another way we can show our commitment to trees, pollinators, and all creatures. Consider incorporating some Zero Waste strategies into your event with these tips and resources from Austin Resource Recovery.
Looking for inspiration for your event? Check out a selection of past year’s events.