Garden Festival at the Rundāle Palace
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When from 11:00 on June 29.
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Where: Rundāle Palace gardens, Rundāle.
The 13th Garden Festival will coincide with the 42nd Latvian Flower Friends Get-together. This year's theme is “Gazebos in a Baroque Garden”. This year, Latvian Flower Friends will also be visiting the Rundāle Garden Festival – they and all other visitors will be able to better acquaint themselves with the Palace Gardens under the guidance of the Castle gardeners at 12:00, 14:00, and 16:00. The study of the Gardener's House will display plans for the renovation of the Rundāle Palace – lists of plants and their layout schemes, presentations about the past Garden Festival themes, such as perennials, tree plants, roses, fence-making, and historical orangeries. Families with children are especially welcome at the festival. A carousel will grace the center of the garden, while creative workshops and games will take place in one of the "boskett's", and in the Green Theatre – a production of “The Princess and the Pea”. The publisher “Liels un Mazs” will have a tent in the lily garden, offering children's books and hosting a meeting with the illustrator of the children's book “Rožu Spoks” Anita Paegle. Little readers will be invited to create their own special rose from silk paper. The market, the carousel, games and workshops will run throughout the whole day. Visitors will also be able to take pictures with the Kalvene rabbits.
Mālpils Strawberry Festival
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When: from 14:00 on June 29.
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Where:Mālpils Manor, Mālpils.
Visitors are invited to take part in strawberry tasting, a strawberry cake contest, and enjoy the diverse strawberry-themed produce of craftsmen and home farmers, besides activities offered by the businesses of Mālpils, different creative workshops, excursions to the strawberry field, old oak seat-making classes and concerts. The Mālpils Manor will be offering a three course strawberry meal. A strawberry ball will mark the conclusion of the festival.
Visit the Insect Path
Situated at the foot of the Šlītere lighthouse, on the edge of the Blue Mountain, the Insect Path is a new nature exploration trail. The trail is 400 meters long, and winds along the edge of the Blue Mountain to the Great Oak, which is the abode to a entomological rarity – the bright ant colony, as well as various other insects which inhabit old hollow trees. Explorers of all ages will have an opportunity to study the insects when following the trail. The “Pollinating Insects” stand will provide abundant information to schoolchildren and adults alike, while the youngest visitors will be offered to explore the relationships between different flowers, insects and worms through a special cube puzzle. The trail also features a specially built insect hotel which, over time, will gather under its roof a diversity of well-known and rare species.
