45th Honey Bee Festival draws thousands, keeps Palo Cedro Park’s gates open

16 hours ago

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PALO CEDRO — Traffic backed up through town last weekend as the 45th annual Honey Bee Festival filled the Bishop Quinn Community Center grounds on Sept. 26 and 27, drawing thousands for crafts, food, live music, and a live bee-beard demonstration while raising money for Palo Cedro Community Park.

The two-day event, held at 21893 Old 44 Drive just north of Highway 44, opened both mornings with a pancake breakfast and an opening ceremony. The schedule also included the NorCal Antique Tractor and Engine Parade, a bee costume parade, a food court, and booths of handmade goods. Organizers have long described it as Shasta County’s largest craft fair; vendor materials put typical attendance around 6,000 to 8,000 people. This year’s coverage reported thousands through the gates.

Honeybee coordinator Shelly Carlock told Action News Now that everything raised goes toward keeping the park open. The festival typically brings in more than $30,000. Palo Cedro Community Park, on Cedro Lane is run by volunteers and receives no county funding. Festival proceeds have paid for the fence, gate, water, trails, and playground.

The festival began in 1980, when local honey business owners Lois and Homer Park organized a small fundraiser for a community park. Early years featured a bee costume contest and a pie-baking contest before the event grew into a craft fair of handmade goods. Emilie Reedy later led it and steered the money toward finishing the park. In the early 2000s, it moved to the Bishop Francis Quinn Catholic Campus. The park opened to the public in 2014.

The week before the festival, the Shasta Beekeepers Association visited Northstate classrooms, including North Cow Creek Elementary in Palo Cedro, with lessons on honeybees and pollination. Association president Ryan Burris told KRCR that without honeybees, roughly two-thirds of the produce market would be at risk, and that teaching children where their food comes from matters.

At the Sept. 29 Board of Supervisors meeting, District 3 Supervisor Corkey Harmon noted the weekend crowd in his board report. “It started out as a little, small community fundraiser, and it’s grown into a huge fundraiser for the park and the community,” he said. “It was pretty much bumper to bumper in Palo Cedro over the weekend.” Harmon also said Saturday brought Palo Cedro's first sanctioned rodeo.

The festival returns the last weekend in September. Details are at: https://www.pcpark.org/honeybee-festival