The Hahira Honey Bee festival is here.

It is hard to believe that Hahira started its annual Hahira Honey Bee Festival in the early 1980s. The Americana tradition of the festival’s parade, arts & crafts show and more hark back to an earlier period in American history.

But Hahira forged the tradition in an era when many small-town festivals started to die.

The Hahira Honey Bee Festival started in an age when new entertainments were taking root across the nation and in South Georgia.

Culturally, the early 1980s will be better remembered as the beginning of MTV, the rise of video games, cable television, the ability for a family to rent a movie to play in their homes, and any number of entertainments that could easily distract folks from attending an old-fashioned parade or festival.

But not in Hahira.

Hahira started a festival in the midst of all of these technological entertainments which have only grown more elaborate, more popular and more prevalent in the past few decades.

Yet, the Hahira Honey Bee Festival has not only survived. It has thrived.

Tens of thousands of people regularly attend the annual parade which is scheduled to return noon Saturday, Oct. 6,  to Downtown Hahira.

They leave behind their cable TV, Internet, video games, central air-conditioning, etc., to come to the Hahira Honey Bee Festival. Or, at least, they bring many of those things with them in their smart phones, but they come to the festival anyway.

They come to celebrate a town and their neighbors and a hopefully golden Saturday afternoon with a bit of cool in the air as a parade passes by.

They will do so this weekend again for the 37th Annual Hahira Honey Bee Festival, and if Hahira remains true to the festival’s roots, people will likely still attend in another 37 years or even to the year 3737 despite the technological advances of other entertainment.

Events include:

Friday, Oct. 5: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., arts & crafts, food booths, etc., numerous other activities.

Saturday, Oct. 6: Live entertainment all day, arts and crafts, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; parade at noon; numerous other activities into the evening.

More information: Visit www.hahirahoneybeefest.com; or email hahirahoneybeefestival@yahoo.com.