Catherine’s Butterfly Party, a free family festival with hundreds of adoptable pets, runs from noon to 4:00 on June 8 at the Fairfield Hills Campus, 3 Primrose Street in Newtown.

The event features vendors, artisans, food trucks, entertainment, and a wide variety of activities for kids. More than 29 rescue organizations, animal ambassadors, conservationists, wildlife rehabilitators, and animal educators participate.

Activities for kids include face painting, glitter tattoos, colored hair extensions, crafts, arts, and a pollinator garden scavenger hunt. On the venue’s main stage are:

12:10: Ferncroft Wildlife
12:50: Army Military K-9 Demonstration
1:30: Riverside Reptiles
2:10: Army Military K-9 Demonstration
2:50: Rising Starr Horse Rescue
3:25: Animal Embassy

This is the eighth year of the festival by the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, a Connecticut nonprofit working to promote compassion and healing by connecting humans amd animals and to help animals find loving homes.

Catherine’s Butterfly Party honors what would have been the 18^th birthday of Catherine Violet Hubbard, a passionate animal lover who was a six year-old victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.

More information about the festival can be found here.