Falher’s most famous bee, the World’s Largest Honeybee, hovers 22 feet above Falher’s main street. It was built in 1990 to celebrate Falher’s very first Honey Festival. Thirty years later, the festival brings thousands of people to the town for four days each year. 2019 marked the most successful Honey Festival to date, drawing somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people to celebrate both the festival and the town’s 100-year anniversary. 

But what does the Honey Festival mean to Falher locals? James says it’s a collective feeling of community celebration, “I think everyone in the region knows that the Honey Festival means a lot. It's the first really big event of the summer…It’s a way of kind of shedding the winter blues, coming together as a community to celebrate the summer and celebrate the industrious nature of our northern community.”

Unfortunately, 2019 also marked the last Honey Festival before the pandemic. Festival goers and planners were forced to take a two-year break, but like honeybees, the folks of Falher were resilient. 

Bigger plans came together with an eager new board that built on the momentum they created with the 2019 Honey Festival. When the festival launched again in 2022, locals got a chance to shed their pandemic blues alongside their winter blues. 

As predicted, a lot of fun was had when the festival made a comeback, despite the downpour of rain. The Honey Festival is projected to be a celebration to remember with each passing year and visitors can count on the folks of Falher to keep the town's history alive.