The buzz on LaFayette’s Honeybee Festival
If you’re anywhere remotely near LaFayette on June 2, you will definitely want to buzz on over for the city’s second annual Honeybee Festival.
There’s everything to love about this festival: live music featuring Craig Campbell and Joe Nichols this year (plus a meet-and-greet with the singers); 160 food, arts and crafts and other vendors; a giant kids’ area with free face-painting, activities and inflatables. There’s a barbecue competition, the Metric-Century Bicycle Ride for cyclists and a cruise-in with antique tractors.
And there’s stuff you won’t find at too many other festivals – beekeeping exhibits and demonstrations, a honey contest and contests for honey-related crafts, photography, art, poetry, candles and confections. The evening before the festival there will be a Miss Honeybee Pageant, sponsored by the LaFayette High School cheerleaders, at Joe Stock Park.
The festival boasts 54 sponsors at levels ranging from Diamond at the top to many local businesses that contributed $250 or more to help bring the festival to life. Some of the top sponsors are Pigeon Mountain Trading Company, US 101, Rock City, The Bank of LaFayette, CHI Memorial, Mitchell’s Plumbing and Blossman Gas.
Why a Honeybee Festival? Here’s how the city of LaFayette explains it:
“The City of LaFayette works to bring attention to the importance of preserving the honeybee population. We also see the importance of the honeybee population as a parallel to preserving the life of our own community. In a Beehive, each bee has a responsibility to maintain the nest and protect the Queen.
“Who is the Queen in our City? It’s the community. It’s our citizens, our family, friends and children. It’s our homes, businesses and industries. It’s our future. It’s us!”
Admission to the festival, which starts at 9 a.m. and runs into the evening hours, is free. It’s too late to enter contests this year (except the bike ride), but you’ll get to see this year’s entries at the festival and start planning your own for next year.