The Philly Honey Festival was a fascinating day full of learning and fun.
Courtesy of Philadelphia Honey Festival
a.) What do you call a bee that works for the government?
b.) What does a bee use to style her hair?
c.) Who’s the beekeeper’s favorite singer?
With the fall semester back in full swing, it’s time celebrate the beauty of the environment we’re surrounded by every day. You know the drill: another week, another chat on all things sustainability. This week, we had the “un-bee-livable” opportunity of attending Philadelphia’s 2026 Honey Festival. Let’s talk about what this buzz is all about.
Every year, Philadelphia puts on this sweet celebration, marking the end of summer and the change of seasons. This year, thirteen local honey vendors from the greater Philadelphia region all gathered at the Wyck Historic House to educate, celebrate and share the love for the honeybee. And let us be the first to say: it did not disappoint.
To share the love for the honeybee, many vendors put out samples of their personal honey batches.
“I love hot honey, so that one was definitely my favorite to try,” senior Kylah Rice said.
Not only did we sample our way through the festival, but we also watched beekeepers extract honey right in front of us, in real time. The beekeepers remove the wax cap from the honeycomb and spin it fast enough that the honey pulls off the sides of the comb and drains out. It’s a beautiful, delicate process that opened our eyes to the magnificent and valuable role honeybees play in making life just a little bit sweeter.
Plus, for the real busy-bee citizens, there is also an opportunity to volunteer at the festival. Options to donate your time range from selling honey to children’s exhibits to the Bee Beard. Yes, you heard that right. One brave soul wore a live beard made of bees at the festival. This challenge causes thousands of worker bees to swarm across their face and body, creating a living “beard” of stinging insects. Whether you are a beekeeper, a daredevil or just a honey-loving person, there really is something for everybody here.
Now, why does all this matter? As summer turns to fall and the leaves start to drop, the temperature drops and they release pollen and other particles into the air. One of the best remedies for this is honey, especially local honey. By exposing yourself to tiny amounts of regional pollen over time, your body builds tolerance and learns not to overreact to the allergen.
While most store-bought honey is overprocessed, natural honey from these local vendors remains raw and unfiltered, preserving the original pollen traces.
In our ever-changing environment, there truly is something out there for everyone, and for every student.
Whether on campus or off, we encourage you to try new things, attend a new event, and embrace the beauty of our world.
And we want to leave you with a friendly reminder: always “bee” kind to our environment around us because it helps us in more ways than we realize.
Answers:
a.) A pollentician
b.) A honeycomb
c.) Bee-yonce