Berkeley Frog Fest is a free, family-friendly, community-oriented art and science festival held at UC Berkeley by frog nerds and their friends

The first Berkeley Frog Fest will take place:

Sat. Aug. 29, 2026 1-5pm

Genetics & Plant Biology Building south lawn, UC Berkeley Campus (map below)

Are you planning to attend? Help us estimate attendance: RSVP here.

Interested in volunteering during the event? We now have plenty of volunteers, thank you so much!

 
 
 

Activities

Scheduled events

1:15 pm Deadline to drop off art for display

2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 pm: Tours of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

2:30 pm Live performance by Tiny Rock

3:30 pm Art competition winners announced

All day

View amphibian-themed artwork

Take a picture in a frog terrarium

See live amphibians

Learn about how frogs jump (& make origami)

Learn about what frogs like to eat (& play a bean toss game)

Learn about frog habitats (& make a cyanotype)

Save frogs from the worst pandemic in history (& play a collaborative board game)

Learn about amphibians from an amphibian expert (meet members of the AmphibiaWeb steering committee, view frog embryos through a microscope, ask all your questions)

Amphibioscope: learn about your amphibiological sign and read your horoscope

Art competition details

Frog fest will be facilitating an amphibian-inspired art competition. Any creative format is welcome! Think frog-themed theater performance! Electronic music sampling frog calls! Digital comic strips, educational posters, poetry, short stories, a sketch of a strange salamander dreamscape, caecilian-themed mugs, mosaics, jewelry, etc. Frogs, salamanders, and caecilians are all welcome inspiration for your creative efforts.

Adult and kid (<13 yo) entries will be judged separately.

Prize categories:

  • Weirdest

  • Cutest

  • Most educational

  • Most frog

  • Most Bay Area

In order to enter the competition and be considered for prizes:

  1. Provide an image of the artwork and information about the artist and the artwork via this form https://forms.gle/Na9yXW5sxtqvcKiF8 by 4:59pm on August 26.

  2. If you would like us to display your art in person during the event please deliver it to Rebecca Tarvin at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA) by 4:59pm on August 27, or bring it directly to Berkeley Frog Fest between 12:30 pm and 1:15 pm on August 29. We will do our very best to take care of every art piece but please note that there is some amount of risk of damage if you choose to display your art in person.

Donors and partners

Art prizes

 
 
 

Where can you find more information about frogs?

OMG I’m so glad you asked! Here’s a quick 101 on frogs and their relatives, the amphibians.

  • Amphibians are ectotherms with moist, permeable skin.

  • Adults are independent of water, but most larvae are not.

  • Linnaeus defined class Amphibia (“dual life”) in 1758 as all vertebrates except mammals, birds, and bony fish

  • Eventually amphibians and reptiles were separated, but “herpetology” (the study of creeping things) persists. “Herpes” has the same root - “a creeping cutaneous eruption”

  • There are three orders of amphibians: salamanders, frogs, and caecilians

Salamanders

  • Four limbs (sometimes reduced)

  • Well-developed tails

  • Costal grooves (except Salamandridae) 

  • 824 species in 2025; 521 species in 2004 (~14 new species/year)

  • Primarily distributed in the northern continents with secondary invasion of the Neotropics

  • Centers of diversity in eastern U.S. and Neotropics (no salamanders in Australia or most of Africa)

Frogs

  • Four robust limbs on a compact body

  • Greatly elongated hind limbs and feet

  • No tail in adults

  • Caudal vertebrae fused into a rod (urostyle) 

  • 7842 species in 2025; 4904 species in 2004 (~140 new species/year)

  • Worldwide distribution

  • Center of diversity in the tropics

Caecilians

  • Limbless (not even girdles!)

  • Elongate, annulated bodies

  • Generally fossorial (burrowing)

  • Reduced eyes that are covered with skin and sometimes bone

  • Crazy fused skulls

  • 231 species in 2025; 165 species in 2004 (~3 new species/year)

  • Circum-tropical distribution

 

Expert-curated websites

These have general information, images, range maps, and calls for many species. Better than wikipedia!

2026 Berkeley Frog Fest organizing committee

Rebecca Tarvin, Anne Chambers, Maryellen McGoldrick, Kathy Ho

2026 Berkeley Frog Fest volunteers

Adri Jeckel, Ammon Corl, Anjali Matthews, Annabelle Monroe , April Kwon, Brooklyn Stone, Carol Spencer, Charlie Voirin, Daniel Oliveira, Dave Blackburn, Dave Cannatella, Diego Ocampo, Elizabeth Nichols, Emma Bustamante, Evan Ho, Gabriel Cavin, Imogen Albert, Indra Deshmukh, Julia Lippert, Justine Moon, Katie Monat, Keili Ayala Picazo, Kinsington Peterson, Kristin Bass, Michal Shuldman + daughter, Michelle Koo, Nessa Kmetec, Pooneh Kalhori, Rayna Bell, Richard Harland, Sarah Wenner, Sarah Zdebski, Vance Vredenberg, Ziting Chen

Other useful books and sites