Canberra’s Capital Region Farmers Market is set to become a swarm of family-friendly activities such as face painting and badge making on Saturday May 21 to celebrate World Bee Day.
Bees are integral to many of our stallholders’ produce, and the Market would not look the same without out little pollinating pals. The main purpose of World Bee Day events is to spread awareness of the significance of bees and other pollinators for our survival.
“For many of our stallholders, particularly those that specialise in fruit, bees are the number one source for pollination. Especially within the Canberra region with so many orchards around Young and those areas, we need a healthy bee population to be out collecting pollen and invertedly ensuring fruit keeps growing,” says Capital Region Farmers Market Manager Sarah Power.
“Pretty much anything that requires blossoms to fruit requires pollination, and basically the only way trees get pollination here is our bees, which is why the Market really wants to help educate our visitors across all ages and demographics about bees and their vital role as pollinators and to food production.”
“We realise this celebration is on election day, but we are encouraging families to visit the Market before or after they cast their vote. World Bee Day has become a date that we circle on our calendar at the start of each year as it’s such a fun time for adults and children alike,” Sarah continued.
Everyone can play their own part in the preservation of bees, whether it be by planting nectar-bearing flowers, buying only Australian-made honey and hive products, or even finding out more about starting your own hive.
The Market will be hosting a hive of events on the day, including:
- Bee-themed face painting.
- Colouring in tent – come and colour in our friendly bee and place him at home in his hive on the Farmers Market Hive Wall.
- Make a badge – colour in your bee and we’ll turn him into your very own badge to take home and wear with pride.
- Honey Trail scavenger hunt – find the 10 bees located around the Market from stallholders who feature honey-themed food and receive a $10 voucher to buy your own special treat.
- Find out how you can be involved with bees with ACT for Bees
- Local honey stallholders and specialty produce created exclusively for the day
- Rotary Club of Hall will be serving a sample of a traditional Slovenian honey breakfast, with bread, honey, and apples from the Market.
We are inviting everyone to come to the Market dressed up in your best bee-themed costume and take a photo in front of the Farmers Market Hive Wall.
The Bee-tails
What: World Bee Day at Capital Region Farmers Market
When: Saturday May 21, 2022, 7am–11:30am
Where: Capital Region Farmers Market at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC)
Website: For more information, visit https://capitalregionfarmersmarket.com.au/world-bee-day/
MEDIA CONTACT: For more information, images or interviews contact Patrick Woods, Threesides, on 0457 222 253 or patrick.woods@threesides.com.au
MEDIA BACKGROUNDER
Bees: Fast Facts.
Bees play an important role in pollinating native plants in our Australian ecosystem. The vast majority of global pollinators are wild including over 20,000 species of bees.
Australia is home to around 2,000 species of native bees, the majority of which are solitary bees.
European Honeybees are social insects that were introduced to pollinate many of the introduced food crops that now form part of a normal Australian diet.
Beekeepers migrate their bees to produce honey from diverse flowering events and perform essential pollination services to safeguard our food, fibre, forests and fodder crops.
Bees are keystone species, playing a vital role as pollinators.
Did you Know:
Global population forecasts predict that we will have close to one third more people in the next 30 years. To feed this growing population and secure the well-being of humankind, we need to ensure food is available, accessible, diverse, balanced and of good quality.
Pollination is crucial to achieving food security as three out of four crops across the globe producing fruits or seeds for human consumptions as food depend, at least in part, on pollinators. Pollinators affect 35 percent of global agricultural land, supporting the production of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide.
On 20 December 2017, following three years of efforts at the international level, the UN Member States unanimously approved a proposal by Slovenia to proclaim 20 May as World Bee Day. Slovenia is a nation of beekeepers, and beekeeping enjoys a status equal to that of other types of agricultural activity. The significance of bees and ensuring their well-being is well understood.
Sources: Wheen Bee Foundation and the official World Bee Day website: https://www.worldbeeday.org.au/
