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See What the Rustle Is About at 22nd Annual LEAF Festival
Celebration of all things green to coincide with Erie's Blues and Jazz Festival
September 23, 2021 at 3:00 PM
Instagram @lakeeriearboretum
The Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier will be a much more bustling scene than this photo from Oct. 2020, with Blues and Jazz Fest crowds combining for the annual LEAF Festival as well, both at Frontier Park.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 25
Despite some intriguing experiments over the years, there is no conclusive evidence that music helps plants grow. In 1962, botanist T.C. Singh of Annamalai University observed that balsam plants responded favorably to both classical and traditional Indian raga music. In 1973, Dorothy Retallack of Colorado Women's College claimed that her plants grew toward the sounds of relaxing classical and jazz but away from "discordant" rock music and its suggestive lyrics. In 2004, the show Mythbusters contradicted Retallack's research when a greenhouse pumped with death metal yielded the most prolific crop.
You can photosynthesize your own opinion on plants and their genre preferences — but the fact of the matter is that they do respond to certain vibrations (of the wind, feeding predators, etc.). And there will be some major vibes happening this Saturday in Frontier Park as its understory will be teeming with community all day long.
First up is the latest edition of the LEAF Open Market (LEAF being the Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier, the official nonprofit partner of Frontier Park) featuring local produce and foodstuffs, arts and crafts, and other goodies for sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then, in conjunction with the "blues" day of Erie's Blues and Jazz Festival, LEAF will celebrate all things green with its 22nd Annual LEAF Festival from 2 to 6 p.m. The family-friendly event will feature craft projects, scavenger hunts, arboretum tours, and other nature-based activities highlighting the value of trees and environmental stewardship.
No word on whether the 1,000-plus trees at Frontier Park prefer the swampy sounds of the Delta blues or the upbeat tunes of boogie-woogie, but they'd love to hear your interest and enthusiasm.
2 to 6 p.m. // Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park, 1501 W. Sixth St. // Free // leaferie.org