The Wild America Nature Festival is set to return this weekend, including multiple wild animal presentations. Photo courtesy of Panama Rocks’ website

PANAMA — One of the area’s most unique summer events, Panama Rock’s Wild America Nature Festival is set to make its annual return this weekend, promising wild animal shows along with food and arts and craft vendors, all with a connection to nature.

Located at 11 Rock Hill Road, Panama Rocks will be hosting the Wild America Nature Festival on both Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Each day is full of activities for the family, and with admission on Saturday comes a wristband that is also good for Sunday, so one can come both days with only having to pay the admission fee for one day.

“I love this event,” Panama Rocks Owner Jonathan Weston said. “It’s very unique through our guests and wild animal presentations, where people can meet wild animals up close, to our art vendors that sell things like painting and nature related items, it gets people close to the outdoors.”

Other activities include forage talks, mushroom walks, folk music, and other wild animal related activities. All of the artists are local, and Weston added that the event is unique to the area and helps connect people to nature in a fun way. A few guests highlighted by Weston include; Jungle Terry — who did not attend last year’s festival but is returning this year –, Hawk Creek, Wild Creatures Discovery Center, and others coming to discuss things such as bat conservation and Chautauqua Lake. A few new artists will be among the vendors as well.

“People should expect to have a great time,” Weston said. “People will get the chance to meet wild animals up close that they don’t normally get to. We have unique vendors with handmade items, great food, and it should be a great day. It gives people a chance to be outside, meet some cool animals, visit our vendors, and you can come all day both days and have plenty to do.”

The Wild America Nature Festival has taken place every year, except during Covid, since 2017. Each year Weston said the festival has received positive feedback, and it was also included among the list of Top 10 summer events in Western New York. He also noted that for the vendors Panama Rocks has some specific standards, so that everything sold by vendors is hand made, and not found anywhere else or sold in bulk. The food vendors are also not found at a lot of other festivals. People are welcome to visit the rocks as well when they come, for only a dollar more than on regular days.

Weston encouraged everyone to visit the festival’s website, PanamaRocks.com/WANF for a full schedule of each day, and to plan ahead to give time for parking and getting through admission for any specific event. The website also includes admission price information, and there is a price for field parking as well, but street parking is free. Admission on Saturday is good for Sunday also, and people should also plan to bring cash as not all vendors can accept credit cards.

“Come on out and have a great day,” Weston said.