HAHIRA, Ga. — If anyone is wondering what’s the buzz, it’s the 35th Annual Hahira Honey Bee Festival throughout the week.

The festival kicked off with a breakfast Monday at the Community Center. A senior walk is scheduled for 8-10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, starting at the Community Center, Randall Street.

The weekend events kick off 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, with the arts and crafts show and food.

Arts and crafts continue from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, along with day-long entertainment on the stage behind the caboose; the Century Bike Ride, 8 a.m.; 5K run, 8 a.m.; Kids Zone, with pony rides, Human Hamster Water Experience, the Climbing Wall, etc.

At noon Saturday, Oct. 1, the Honey Bee Festival presents its famed parade, which has earned the reputation of one of the largest parades in South Georgia. The parade often counts thousands of visitors lining Hahira’s downtown streets.

Still, some folks new to the area may wonder, why does Hahira celebrate the honey bee with a festival?

The Honey Bee Festival pays tribute to years gone by when Hahira was considered the “Queen Bee Capital of the World” for its manufacture of honey bees.

In approximately 1920, the first honey bee business opened shop in Hahira. 

“This was with the establishment of the Puett Company that dealt with the raising of queen bees and the shipping of queens and package bees all over the USA and Canada,” wrote Louise Passmore on the Hahira website. 

In 1953, Dadant & Sons opened a branch of its beekeeping supply firm in Hahira. Passmore worked for Dadant & Sons.

“At that time, the Puett Company and Dadant & Sons were located in an old two-story brick building which was originally a cigarette manufacturing plant back in the 1920s,” Passmore noted. “They made Happy Day and O’Teen Cigarettes. Even though Hahira became a flourishing tobacco area and bore the name of ‘Gold Leaf City of the South,’ the cigarette manufacturing bit did not flourish and was forced to close.”

Mamie Sorrell and Adeline Landrum started the Hahira Honey Bee Festival in the early 1980s. More info: Visit www.hahirahoneybeefestivalinc.com; for the parade, call (229) 794-1425 or (229) 563-1318; general info, call (229) 794-3097.