Annual Festival of Children returns to Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza this weekend

Festival of Children — an annual extravaganza featuring entertainment, family-friendly activities and charity outreach — returns Saturday for a month-long run at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza.

The goal of the 16th annual event, which will be held on weekends throughout September, is to raise awareness for children’s charities and educate the public about their work.

“What started as a dream more than 16 years ago to support Orange County’s children’s charities has blossomed into a grand event that has exposed their important work to more than 30 million people,” said Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, founder and executive director of the Festival of Children Foundation, in a statement.

“I am delighted to welcome back many of the charities who have been with us for years and showcase the work of many new charities that provide such a valuable service for our children.”

Opening ceremonies are at noon Saturday in Carousel Court at South Coast Plaza.

The festival — themed “Children Will Listen” this year — is held in conjunction with National Child Awareness Month, another foundation-led effort to bring attention to issues facing youngsters across the country.

About 75 charities are expected to participate and will be provided free display space in South Coast Plaza to connect with each other and the community.

Booths will be set up in the Sears and Bloomingdale’s wings of the mall.

As always, the festival will feature an assortment of musical and dance performances, arts and crafts, face-painting, magic shows and other family-oriented activities.

Most of those activities will take place in Carousel Court and Jewel Court on Saturdays and Sundays, largely between noon and 4 p.m.

“CanstructionOC,” an array of nine sculptures fashioned entirely from canned goods, will also return this year in conjunction with the festival.

The edible effigies will be disassembled at the conclusion of the event and the building materials — more than 56,000 cans of food in all — will be donated to the Orange County Food Bank.

Making its festival debut this year is the Carousel Horse Art Exhibit, consisting of decorated carousel horses designed by professional and amateur artists.

Those will be displayed in South Coast Plaza through September. The plan is to eventually auction many of them off to raise money for the festival, according to organizers.

Wyland — an artist renown for his marine-life inspired paintings — will also hold a live-art demonstration in Jewel Court on Sept. 10 to discuss his work and educate attendees about the importance of conservation.

For more information on the festival, visit festivalofchildren.org.

luke.money@latimes.com

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