Back for another year, the New York City Honey Festival is set to “come out stinging” on the 86th Street Boardwalk at Rockaway Beach this Saturday, September 7. As in past years, the event will bring a range of honey and bee related vendors together for “bees, beers, brains, and edibles on the beach.”
This year’s gathering is set to honor collaboration, creativity, and resilience in more than one way. Recently rebuilt with the help of event co-organizers Rippers after having been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, the 86th Street Boardwalk seems to be an appropriate setting for an event meant to educate and organize for the honeybee cause.
As Brooklyn Grange‘s (also event co-organizers) Chief Beekeeper (found what we want to be when we grow up) Chase Emmons told us, “After the [86th Street Boardwalk]…was decimated by Hurricane Sandy, we weren’t sure if we would be able to return. We were so happy to bring Honeyfest back to Rockaway, not just for the fest itself, but to be able to help raise relief funds and show the world that Rockaway beach is better than ever.”
And it sure does seem like there will be plenty of opportunities to learn about and celebrate the honeybee on the 86th Street Boardwalk. Urban beekeepers, restaurateurs, artists, performers, and vendors will praise the wonders of the honey bee with tastes of local beekeepers’ honeys, honey extraction demos, honey-infused beer tastings, honey-made snack samplings, take home beeswax candles and cosmetics, kids’ activities, and a “beachside Rosh Hoshannah honey-based ritual” — obviously an event that you’ll have to see for yourself.
What’s more, proceeds from raffle tickets will benefit Graybeards, a local nonprofit committed to Rockaway relief.
For more info including a list of participants, check out the festival’s website. And for those of you who are just as stoked about this Saturday as we are, go here to see an Instagram video of some of Brooklyn Grange’s hives abuzz along the banks of the East River. We’re suckers for urban apiaries.
