BY AMY PHILLIPS
April 21, 2022
GREENFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Greenfield Bee Fest returns on May 7 to celebrate spring and the importance of bees to agriculture and the environment.
The Greenfield Business Association is looking for sponsors to purchase a specially painted sign that will hang on lamp posts from May through September in the city’s downtown. Sponsorship is $125 on a first come-first served basis until signs run out.
The Bee Fest began in 2010 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Second Congregational Church of Greenfield. Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth, a pastor at the church from 1843-48, was an apiarist (bee keeper) and invented the first movable frame beehive in America. In 1853, while living in Greenfield, he wrote a book on bee keeping, The Hive and the Honey-Bee, that is still available and the information is used by bee keepers today.
Events kick off with a clean up of the Bee Crosswalk on Court Square on May 7, and the opening of an art installation on World Bee Day, May 20th.
On Saturday, May 21, an all day festival will take place that will include a Farmers Market and Bee Bazaar, a parade and other activities for children, beekeeping programs and a free pollinator plant giveaway.