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HAHIRA— The HoneyBee Festival returns in September.
The popular Hahira celebration will return in 2021 after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, for the first time in almost 40 years, there were no walkers, no vendors, and no Shriners in their clown cars.
“We are very happy to be back,” said Lana Hall, Chair of the Honey Bee Festival Committee. “We are a fully voluntary organization of about 25 key people who plan and run the festival. We are a non-profit and all of our funds go back to our community. We help our schools, our food bank, our churches, Georgia Sheriffs ‘Youth Ranch special needs, beekeeping education, veterans needs, the kids’ summer lunch program, Cubs, The Jacobs scale, the burn centers of the Shriners, to name a few. “
When the festival returns on September 25 for a week of events, the theme will be “Protect Our Youth – Preserve Our Future,” in honor of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch near Hahira.
The schedule
is as follows:
Monday, September 27, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. – Community kick-off lunch at the train depot.
8 a.m. Tuesday, September 28 – Community and seniors’ walk at the train station. Sponsored by the Hahira Lions Club.
2 p.m. Wednesday, September 29 – Brown Bag Lunch at the train station, in honor of the teachers of the year. Participating Hahira restaurants will offer lunches for $ 5 in a brown bag, Hall said.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, September 30 – Free hot dogs at Martin McLane Funeral Home at the corner of Church and Grace streets.
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, October 1 – Arts, crafts and food stalls, plus a children’s area, water slides, shows and a climbing wall.
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, October 2 – More arts and crafts and a kids’ zone, plus train and horse rides, plus a 5k run / walk. Free parking will be available at Hahira Primary School with a shuttle bus to the festival area, as well as a cooling station and a changing station.
Saturday will also be the day of the Honey Bee Festival parade, starting at noon, touted by the organizers as “the biggest in South Georgia”. Marching bands, floats, clowns, vintage cars and tractors, local officials and horses will take part.
Returning attendees to the parade include the Shriners, the fraternal order best known for supporting children’s hospitals and wearing fez.
Hall said the Shriners have been a part of the Honey Bee Festival since it started in 1981 – all thanks to a comedy album.
In 1980, country comedian Ray Stevens released the song “The Shriners’ Convention”, following the adventures of Shriners “Illustrious Potentate” Bubba and “Noble Lumpkin” Coy while representing the Hahira delegation at the “43rd Annual” Convention of the Grand Mystic Royal Order of Nobles of the Temple Ali Baba of the Sanctuary.
Most of the song consists of Bubba’s side of a phone conversation in which he lambasted Coy for dishonoring Hahira with his antics at the convention – “How did you get that bike up there diving, Coy? “
The song became a hit, putting Hahira on the map, and the Shriners, taking it all in good spirits, began to perform at the Honey Bee Festival. Hall said that at this year’s parade they will once again bring their trademark clown cars and motorcycles.
For the record, Hahira never had her own Shriners temple.
he Honey Bee Festival celebrates the small town of South Georgia’s past involvement in an industry that is no longer present in the region. In 1920, the first beekeeping company opened a store in Hahira and became a flagship industry in the city for several years.
