Lawrence Public Library's How-To Festival returns with local know-how

What to expect at the How-To Festival

Need a healthier summer meal, a better resume, or a way to learn something useful without paying for a class? Lawrence Public Library is turning 707 Vermont St. into a free, all-ages skills marketplace on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The annual How-To Festival packs 25 listed sessions into the library auditorium, lobby and atrium, and the lawn outside, weather permitting.

The library says presenters will demonstrate skills or share information and stay available to answer questions, which makes this more than a passive browse-through. It is built for people who want to leave with something they can use immediately, whether that means a new hobby, a public-service lesson, or a money-saving idea they can put to work at home the same day.

Melissa Fisher Isaacs, the library’s information services supervisor, has described Lawrence as a place with a lot of creativity, talent and expertise, and the festival is designed to showcase exactly that. The event is an annual celebration of the community’s knowledge, skills and talents, and its appeal comes from the range of what local people are willing to teach one another.

The most practical lessons on the schedule

The strongest draw for many visitors will be the sessions that solve everyday problems. The lineup includes building a resume, using KU Libraries, interviewing a source for a news article, and understanding soccer and the World Cup. Those topics may sound unrelated, but together they show how the festival connects job hunting, research, media literacy and everyday civic life.

Other sessions point directly to family needs and community support. The schedule includes becoming a foster parent and stepping up for Kansas kids, along with offerings from groups tied to youth and family services such as DCCCA, Douglas County CASA, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Visiting Nurses Association. For a local audience, that makes the festival more than a skills fair. It becomes a place where residents can ask real questions about helping children, supporting neighbors and navigating systems that often feel out of reach.

Several sessions are designed to save money or build self-reliance at home. Visitors can learn how to make a healthy heat-friendly meal, cook with the sun, safely observe the sun, restore native landscapes, attract butterflies, preserve history, and make a mushroom spore print. The lineup also includes helping turtles cross the road, a reminder that practical know-how in Douglas County can extend beyond the house and into the region’s roads, wetlands and green spaces.

That hands-on spirit carries into some of the more surprising offerings. The library’s list includes needle-felting a snail, creating a Dungeons & Dragons character, making a grass buddy, synthesizing sounds, and throwing a Frisbee. There are also sessions on birding, amateur radio, bicycle travel in Latin America, and making a mushroom spore print, which together give the festival a wide enough reach to catch everyone from first-timers to longtime hobbyists.

The variety also shows up in the organizations behind the lineup. The current festival page includes sessions tied to KU Libraries, Just Food, Thanks, I Made It! Studio, Astronomy Associates of Lawrence, Monarch Watch, Sparks on the Creek, SPBLLC, Kaw Valley Mycological Society, Lawrence Bird Alliance, Lawrence Ultimate Frisbee Association, Douglas County Amateur Radio Club, KC Synthesizer Collective, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, Lawrence Community Cycles, Greenman Farm, Kansas Permaculture Institute, Restoring Our Landscapes, Lawrence Adult Soccer League, Lawrence Humane Society, Lawrence Community Shelter, Lawrence Tenants, Lawrence Transit, Lawrence Arts Center, Black Lunch Table, and Banner Endings. That range is the point: the festival puts public institutions, nonprofit work, niche hobbies and community services in the same room.

Why the festival has become a civic fixture

The How-To Festival has grown by leaning into what Lawrence already has: people who know how to do things and are willing to show others. A 2023 Lawrence Times report said the festival featured nearly 40 learning stations and activities, and a participant said it helped people see there were many more community resources in town than they realized. That same year, nonprofits including Lawrence Community Shelter, Lawrence Tenants, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Douglas County CASA used the event to share their missions with residents who might not otherwise encounter them.

The event has also served as a stage for civic visibility. In 2022, Lawrence Public Library said the festival featured more than 20 presenters and added bonus events that included the unveiling of Lawrence Transit’s first electric bus and a Wikipedia edit-a-thon. That mix, practical instruction alongside public-service milestones, helps explain why the festival keeps returning as a useful piece of Lawrence’s civic calendar.

For families, newcomers and longtime residents, the value is straightforward: free access to local expertise in one place, for one Saturday morning. If you want to leave with a better recipe, a new skill, a useful contact or a clearer sense of what Douglas County already knows how to do, the How-To Festival is built for exactly that.