In August 2016, the Museum of Discovery brightened its little corner of downtown Little Rock with a messy festival. Bubbles, slime and a white fog made of exploding dry ice, water and dish soap drew hundreds of people and their squealing children.
Little hands plowed trays of mud and slathered little faces with shaving cream. Kids learned stuff about cornstarch and dropped Mentos into soda bottles to make geysers shoot into the air.
For 2017, Messtival moved to May, and even more goop found its way into hair and ears. By 2018, the annual messy fest was famous for a lineup of attractions including Bubbletron 5000, pools of slime and the human car wash, in which kids cheerfully hosed themselves off by bumping past pool noodles hanging from a shower stall.
But after the success of 2019’s event, the covid pandemic threw a wet blanket over the planet and Messtival 2020 was shelved. Then,…
