Honeyfest Fun
What a huge undertaking to organise and run the first ever Exmoor Honeyfest on Saturday 27th August in the magnificent setting of Dunster Village using the ancient Yarn Market in the high street venue of the tastefully restored Tithe Barn with the surrounding gardens by the church. This was the fruition of a vision of Julian Wellford a farmer, commercial bee keeper and volunteer project leader for Bees Abroad in Uganda.
The dual purpose of the event was to celebrate beekeeping on Exmoor and the honey harvest and to offer a shop window to the UK charity Bees Abroad who shows how beekeeping can relieve poverty. The success of the whole event was down to the pre-planning, the hard work and the enthusiasm of the helpers and the Bee Crew on the day.
The Yarn market had story telling for youngsters also poetry reading and other small displays and also acted as a gathering point for those wishing to walk to a local garden to see a live bee demonstration and at other times to inform and guide people to the main area at the Tithe Barn In the grounds by the tithe Barn there were many varied stalls with local produce all creating interest to the visitors. The Tithe Barn facilities had a lecture room in which varied talks and illustrations throughout the day.
Early evening saw the stall holders packing up and the bee crew efficient dismantling the covering tent awnings. Once this was done, most of them made a quick change into suitable clothing for the evening banquet. This consisted of a delicious meal in the tithe barn.
At the conclusion of the banquet, Julian auctioned hive of bees with the proceeds donated to Bees Abroad. This added to an excellent takings that Jackie and Jeff Bee had accumulated from the sale of items from the Bees Abroad stall during the day. The generosity continued from some of the seventy or so people at the banquet who donated through the gift aid envelopes on their tables.
John Home, the Bees Abroad chairman, rounded off the evening with an after dinner talk about Bees Abroad's work, together with humorous stories of his experiences during project work in Kenya.
