What’s the buzz?

Patrons swarm to Paris, Illinois, to enjoy food and festivities—and pad a club’s money pot—at Kiwanis’ Honeybee Festival

Photos and story by Matt Pendleton

In the sleepy town of Paris, Illinois, two Kiwanis clubs annually create the extremely popular and highly lucrative Honeybee Fall Festival. According to Alan Moore, charter member of the Paris Early Risers Kiwanis club, each festival keeps the 90-plus members busy as, well, bees for 10 months, planning, organizing vendors and scheduling entertainers, not to mention the hours of physical labor in the days leading up to it.

“It takes us all of the day before to set up,” Alan says, as he greets and serves hungry and thirsty patrons. “As soon as they get the tent up, it takes us about five hours to get it ready.

“We have 47 craft vendors this year, which is the most we’ve had since we started. “We have vendors come in from as far away as Tennessee, Ohio, and down in Missouri.

All around Alan’s food tent are vendors’ selling t-shirts, hand made jewelry and, keeping in the spirit of the festival, a bee keeper is equipped with a honeycomb display and sells bees wax candles, and, of course honey. All of these booths equate into Kiwanis revenue: US$40 for a 10-foot-square space, up to $105 for a 10-foot by 30-foot plot.

“We’ve got one 10 foot by 40 foot, and he paid $150,” Alan says, explaining that the revenue is split between his Early Risers club and the Paris Kiwanis clubs.

“Our club distributes about $18,000 a year, and the festival nets us about $10,000,” Alan says. “The first year of the festival we probably netted about $300, so that tells you how far we’ve come. For a club with only 30 members we do quite well.”

Considered the town’s yearly “call to fall,” the festival bids farewell to summer with a slew of activities for young and old. Children walk through history at the historical society’s exhibit; teens dance; kids romp run, jump, and climb in a play area known as Honeybee Hollow; sledgehammer-wielding patrons pound dents into a junk car, and spectators applaud a parade. For the older crowd, there is host of vendors, a car show, a bass fishing tournament, bands, and bingo.

That’s quite a change from the event’s humble beginnings.

“The first year of the Honeybee Festival, we started off on the northeast corner of the town square with just a small grill, and grilled bratwurst,” Alan says. “We didn’t have any beverages or anything, just grilled bratwurst. The next year, the chamber of commerce came to us and said, ‘Would you like to get a little bit bigger?’ So we decided we’d try that. We had about four grills that year. We also sold beer. I think we sold about 15 or 20 kegs that year.” (Editor’s note: Kiwanis International’s general liability policy does not cover sales of alcoholic beverages; clubs must make separate arrangements for such coverage and abide by local, state, provincial, and national laws and regulations.)

After dramatically increasing revenues that second year, Paris Kiwanians realized their festival had a lot of fundraising potential.

“The next year, we expanded and moved to the south side of the square and set up a tent,” Alan recalls. “We started with a 40-foot by 120-foot. The next year, we went to 40 foot by 160 foot. Then we went to 180 foot. Then, 200 foot. Now we get a 40-foot by 240-foot tent. The tent company told us this is the biggest tent they put up all year.”

And with an average of 25,000 people coming through the tent to eat and drink, ample shelter is important. Especially when the entertainment begins.

“When we started, we were the ‘Little Germans of Paris,’” Alan says. “We used to sell the brats, Polish sausage, hotdogs, German potato salad, and baked beans. To go along with that theme, we used to have German bands. But, this past year—at my suggestion because I felt like we had run the German theme into the ground—we changed. Now the tent is ‘The Beehive,’ and we’ve got rock-and-roll and blues bands.”

Once you’re done partying in the hive, you can venture out to the “car smash” like Alesha Kelly-Anne McCarty did. Donning her crown and sash, the 2005-06 Honeybee Queen hoisted a sledgehammer and taught an old Chevrolet Celebrity a lesson.

Alesha is a very busy bee. Among Alesha’s extracurricular activities such as after-school chorus and thespians, she also is a member of the Paris High School Key Club. That hardly comes as a surprise, however, because 85 percent of her classmates belong to the club.

“We had 25 Honeybee Queen contestants this year,” Alan says. “This queen is even bigger than the fair queen or the homecoming queen. She goes to all the other festivals during the summer and up until the next year when our queen next queen is crowned.”

This festival marks the fourth year Alesha has been involved in the pageant, and this year, understandably, has been the best.

“I flip pancakes and serve biscuits and gravy all week,” she says, “and I get to be in the parade, which is great. I’m grateful to be doing this.”

Though students can participate in the Honey Bee Queen pageant up until they are seniors in high school, just like a bee, once they’ve stung, they can’t sting again.

“I can’t run for Honeybee Queen again,” Alesha says. “Once you win, you can’t be Queen again.”

Following the event, things calm down significantly in Paris, at least for a while.

“We’ll have a meeting and form a committee for the next event in about two months,” Alan says. “Then it will start all over again. It’s a lot of work, but it’s all worth it to be able to help people out. I’m glad I’m a Kiwanian.”