People swarm to the Honey Bee Festival in Carlton

Well even for a rainy day, folks were buzzing in Carlton for the honey bee festival!

The Carlton community gathered at the Oldenburg house for all aspects of art and fun while also paying homage to pollinators and the bees.

"We are introducing our community to art in various ways”, says Artistic Director Glenn Swanson. With artists building relationships with one another there’s a deeper meaning to all the bee merchandise and fun. Swanson says, “it’s that idea. To connect, not only with each other, but with nature and to understand the very interconnectedness we have with all living things."

The Swansons love having everybody in their back yard celebrating. Emily Swanson says, “we love this community and we wanted to see if we could bring all there good energy right here.”

With live music, to aerialists, to painters, people were even surprised to see biking was also included on the activities with. Jason Wussow with the bike group The Swarm loves coming to Honey Bee Festival. “I’m just happy that they can keep doing it the Oldenburg house is such a cool space and these guys just do a good job at everyone feel happy and comfortable”, he says.

And festival’s deeper admiration of bees and other pollinators has even gotten the attention from bigger organizations.

Emily explains saying, “this [festival] inspired was a huge grant from the board of water and soil resources to create pollinator habitats all across the county and the reservation. And now we want to go Arrowhead wide. And so this is sort of the next big push.”