08/18/2026
Jacksonville, THANK YOU.
After a weekend like this, it is hard to know where to begin.
Thousands of you joined us for BeeFare 2026, and as a small family business that started this event because we simply wanted to share our love of honey bees and beekeeping with our community, seeing what it has grown into means more to us than we can put into words.
But BeeFare doesn't happen because of Bee Friends Farm alone. Far from it.
More than 60+ volunteers gave their time this weekend to help make this event possible. A very special thank you goes to the Jacksonville Beekeepers Association, Nassau County Beekeepers Association, and Clay County beekeeping community, along with all of the volunteers who came alongside us. You answered questions, shared your knowledge, worked with children and families, helped behind the scenes, and represented the beekeeping community incredibly well.
A very special thank you also goes to Justin and the entire Local Fare team, who partnered with us to help bring BeeFare together. And to Amanda, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes coordinating our vendors, communicating with them, getting everyone signed up and helping turn months of planning into the marketplace our guests experienced this weekend. There is an enormous amount of work that happens before those doors ever open, and we are incredibly grateful for your help and support.
To our vendors and food vendors, thank you. Your participation is a major part of what makes an event of this size possible. You filled Duval Hall with an amazing collection of local businesses, makers, food, creativity and talent. We appreciate every one of you who chose to spend your weekend with us.
To our five Saturday speakers, Dave Sieruta, Rob Horsburgh, Laura Banks, Myron Beachy, and Randall Meredith, thank you for giving your time and sharing your knowledge and experience with our guests.
Thank you as well to the Jacksonville Fairgrounds and Duval Hall staff for helping us through our first BeeFare in this beautiful new facility. We could not have asked for a smoother first year in our new home. And on one of the hottest weekends of the summer, with heat indexes well over 100 degrees outside, we were especially grateful for a very cool and comfortable Duval Hall!
Most importantly, thank you to every family who walked through those doors.
We saw children getting their faces painted, meeting Bee-a-trix, looking at bees through microscopes, exploring observation hives and learning how beekeeping works. We saw parents, grandparents, longtime beekeepers and people who had never been this close to a honey bee before.
That is why we do this.
One of the greatest compliments we receive every year is hearing that BeeFare is not only fun, but educational. We want families to leave having had a great day together, but we also hope they leave knowing a little more about honey bees, pollinators, beekeeping and the people in our community who work with them.
Seeing thousands of people come together around something we care so deeply about is something our family will never take for granted.
To everyone who volunteered, taught, spoke, exhibited, sold, cooked, helped, visited, asked questions, brought your children, supported a local vendor, tasted honey, learned about bees or simply came to see what all the buzz was about:
Thank you for making BeeFare 2026 a success.
And yes...
BeeFare will be back in 2027.
With gratitude,
The Bee Friends Farm Family
Your Neighborhood Beekeeper
