Festival de la Monarca

East Chicago's Festival de la Monarca, organized by The Nature Conservancy, celebrates the monarch butterfly as it migrates through East Chicago, Indiana. This FREE Festival also celebrates the monarch's cultural connections to Mexico through music, food and dance.

This is a unique, noncommercial event, connecting children and adults with nature they can relate to in a highly urban environment. The East Chicago Festival de la Monarca is a celebration of the monarch butterfly’s life cycle and migration to Mexico, and the event includes the release of monarch butterflies. As the butterflies fly more than 2,000 miles to their wintering grounds, their presence is noticed by area residents, some of whom believe them to be the returning souls of their ancestors.