The Gold Standard: West Virginia State Honey Festival all the buzz at Parkersburg’s City Park

The 43rd annual West Virginia State Honey Festival had many people buzzing over the availability of honey, bee keeping and more.

Hundreds of people came to City Park and the pavilion for crafts, local vendors, concessions, live music, inflatables entertainment and other activities on Saturday and Sunday.

“It has been fantastic,” said Kela West, an administrative assistant for Wood County Recreation which puts on the annual festival as a fundraiser for its programs.

“There have been so many people,” she said. “It has been a huge turnout.”

For many, it remained the availability of honey and being able to see the bees. Many vendors sold honey and honey-related products.

Sharon Christ of Hillbilly Honey arranges some of the items she was selling this weekend during the 43rd Annual Honey Festival in Parkersburg City Park. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Also, the regular bee beard demonstration is always popular with many people.

“There have been a lot of live bees,” West said. “I hope people were able to learn a little bit more about the honey bees.”

Around 60 vendors participated in the festival, selling items including crafts and items made from honey.

Sharon Christ of Hillbilly Honey said she had been overwhelmed with crowds on Saturday since the festival opened up at 10 a.m.

“It has been fantastic,” the Parkersburg resident said. “There have been a lot of people and it has been busy. It was so busy, I had to call my granddaughter and ask her to come help me.”

Tommy Smith with the West Central Beekeeping Club showed Evelyn Raney of Parkersburg a beehive display during the 43rd Honey Festival in Parkersburg City Park. Smith was showing people how to identify the queen bee and helping to provide other information about bees and honey production. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

She sold a variety of skin creams made with honey as well as honey straws, candy with honey in it, supplements and more. She has also been selling bottles of honey for friends who were not able to attend the weekend festival, including Blue Goose Sweets near Palestine in Wirt County.

“The honey draws people to my table,” Christ said. “Almost everything I sell is all natural.”

She has been involved with the festival for over 10 years, but had to take some time off and just got back into it last year.

Christ is looking to expand for next year.

“We just started our own beehives and I hope to have my own honey to sell,” she said.

Charlie Metz, with the help of beekeepers, applies the bee beard during a demonstration Saturday at the 43rd annual Honey Festival in Parkersburg City Park. The annual festival is put on by the Wood County Recreation Commission as a fundraiser for its programs. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The festival was very informative with a lot of new vendors with a good selection of honey and products from the honey, said Tommy Smith with the West Central Beekeeping Club in Arnoldsburg.

“The real interest has been the kids seeing the actual hives and asking questions,” Smith said. “The kids have been asking about the life cycles of the bees, finding the queen, showing the different sizes of bees, and stuff like that.”

Lauren Raney of Parkersburg said she has brought her kids out to the honey festival since they were babies.

“We know some of the vendors and we come here and say hi,” she said. “We always come by because it is just a fun thing to do with our children.”

Raney is impressed with the different types of honey available, including wildflower honey, tulip honey, and different types of wood honey.

An antique car show was part of the West Virginia Honey Festival on Saturday. Many cars and trucks from different eras were a part of the show and brought out a lot of people. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“The darker honeys are some of our favorites,” she said.

Megan Snow of Athens Ohio was interested in beekeeping and was looking at the equipment they might need as well as getting tips and other pointers from people who have been doing it for a while. A group her family is working with has a class that will start in January and the group will stay with the beekeepers for a whole year through the process.

She and her family homestead and are completely off the grid. They grow their own vegetables and raise rabbits for meat.

“We just wanted to add to our sustainability,” she said. “Everyone has been really pleasant, kind and helpful.”

Joy Spencer of Bearsville Bees of Parkersburg was giving out sample tastes of some of the honeys they had available, including a spicy honey. The group has participated in the Honey Festival for three years.

People were sampling the honey and looking at the equipment they use in beekeeping.

“We are having a good turnout,” she said. “Everyone is trying some honey and some are buying.”

Entertainment included the dance teams from the local high schools, including the Parkersburg High School Red Wings, the Parkersburg South Southern Belles and the Williamstown High School Jackettes as well as area bands Red Sky Down, Band of Brothers, Insured Sound and Evie Schaffer.

West hoped people were able to come out to the festival, try some honey, get an understanding of how bees make the honey and be able to enjoy themselves.

“It is a cool experience,” she said. “I hope people enjoyed the time with their families.”