On a Saturday evening in late February 2011, a crowd gathered at Broken Arrow's Performing Arts Center for the premiere of a local documentary, "The History of Broken Arrow." Dr. Clarence Oliver had narrated the film, which included a segment titled "The City of Roses and Sparkling Spring Water." In the reception afterward, Oliver fell into conversation with Beverly Forester, a woman who, along with her husband Bill, had spent years traveling to flower festivals across the country—the azalea festival in Muskogee, the rose festival in Tyler, Texas, the tulip festival in Holland, Michigan, the bluebonnet festivals in Texas. She knew what a beautiful identity could do for a town.
Oliver and Forester began talking about Broken Arrow's long-forgotten history as the City of Roses. The nickname went back to the 1920s, when the local newspaper, the Broken Arrow Ledger, reported that "almost every home, both humble and aristocratic, boasted a rose garden." It was a point of pride that, by 2011, had been almost entirely erased from the town's memory. When Oliver and Forester asked residents if they knew Broken Arrow had once been called the City of Roses and Sparkling Spring Waters, the majority answered no.
Would it be possible, they wondered, to bring that part of the city's history back? Wouldn't it be fun to try? They started meeting at a Panera Bread, where they recruited Mark Stelljes, a rose expert and the owner of Roses Inc. As Oliver later put it, "It all began with 2 cups of coffee and a napkin."
That napkin sketch grew into Bring Back the Roses, a volunteer committee under Keep Broken Arrow Beautiful, and eventually into the Rose Committee that still organizes the annual Broken Arrow Rose Festival today. The group's first priority was simply educating the public: they printed business cards sharing the vision, Oliver spoke to city leaders and civic groups, and Forester worked the downtown merchants and garden clubs. Meanwhile, a parallel group, the Downtown Advisory Board, was already at work on a different kind of revival—a physical one.
Broken Arrow's downtown had fallen into decline, becoming, in the words of one account, just another bedroom community in a sprawling metropolitan area. In 2005, the mayor and city council kicked off a Downtown Revitalization Plan, ultimately channeling over $65 million in public projects into the historic core: renovated buildings, a 1,500-seat Performing Arts Center, a farmers market pavilion, a 1,200-square-foot interactive water feature, new brick-paved sidewalks, decorative street lamps, and landscape planters. Private investment followed, with more than $25 million in new business spending and over 70 new businesses moving in. When the time came to brand this new arts and entertainment district, the city chose a name that honored the past: the Rose District.
On May 17, 2014, Bring Back the Roses held the first Broken Arrow Rose Festival, Rose Show, and Rose Gala—almost 90 years to the day since the first Rose Carnival of 1924. The festival was a re-creation of those long-ago rose celebrations, and it has grown every year since. Today, more than a thousand rose bushes bloom on Main Street, and homeowners and businesses across the city have planted roses of their own. The Rose Show, once the centerpiece of the 1920s carnivals, remains the heart of the modern festival.
The 2026 Broken Arrow Rose Festival returns to the Rose District on Friday, September 19, from 5 to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, September 20, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the festival's signature Sunday event, Rose Kites Over Broken Arrow, taking place at the Broken Arrow Events Park on September 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All of it is free and open to the public, organized by the Keep Broken Arrow Beautiful Rose Committee in collaboration with community partners across the Rose District and the city.
In the Rose District on Friday and Saturday, visitors will find the Annual Rose Show and floral exhibits, the Arts @302 Art Contest and Exhibit, a free Kid Zone, hands-on garden and monarch/pollinator education booths, marketplace and artist vendors, local food trucks, and live cultural and community performances. The district's shops and restaurants will be open with specials and local charm. The festival has also joined forces in past years with the Chalk It Up! Art Festival, and the 2026 celebration continues the tradition of pairing flowers with sidewalk art and live creativity.
Sunday belongs to the sky. Rose Kites Over Broken Arrow, held at the Events Park at 21101 East 101st Street South, is a sky-high celebration for families and kite enthusiasts. Kids receive free kites to decorate with roses or anything else they can imagine. The Tulsa Wind Riders Kite Club will be on hand flying their large kites, staging candy drops for the children, and demonstrating the art of fighter-kite competition, with multi-time national champion Dave Young among the featured fliers. A historic kite exhibit, twenty feet by forty feet, showcases notable designs spanning the early patents, WWII-era kites, and even a man-lifting Cody War Kite. Regional enthusiasts from multiple states will display giant kites that soar over the Broken Arrow sky. Face painting, food trucks, and the Shriners' free popcorn truck round out the afternoon.
New this year is the Great Rose Ring Hunt, a free four-week community treasure hunt leading up to the festival. Beginning Saturday, August 15, one clue is released each week on social media and at participating Rose District businesses. Each clue guides participants to one of four hidden handcrafted rose rings, each redeemable for a prize package donated by a local sponsor. Four chances, one per person or family, to find a ring before the festival begins.
The festival's deeper project continues even beyond its weekend. In 2015, Keep Broken Arrow Beautiful volunteers saw a design for what would become the Gardens at Central Park, a destination botanical garden at 1500 S. Main St. featuring an antique rose garden, a native species plant garden, a pollinator garden, and a sensory herbal garden, along with an entry plaza, pergola, seating, and signage. Ground was broken in late 2024, funded in part by the city's 2018 General Obligation Bond. KBAB chair Sharon Atcheson called it "the crowning jewel for our amazing Rose District."
What began as a question at a documentary reception—two cups of coffee and a napkin at a Panera—has grown into a full-blown civic revival. The roses are back on Main Street, the kites are back in the sky, and Broken Arrow is once again the City of Roses. The festival that celebrates that return is free for everyone, an open-air invitation to walk the brick sidewalks, smell the blooms, watch the children draw on the street, and look up at the sky where enormous kites drift over the park. It's a story that started with a forgotten history and a simple question: wouldn't it be fun to bring it back? The answer, for over a decade now, has been a festival full of flowers, art, music, and the sound of families laughing in the open air.