Pictured at the launch of the Kerry Wild Bee Festival 2026 were Ryan Crowley, Tralee Bay Wetlands , Niamh Ní Dhúill Transition Kerry, Kieran Galwey, Tralee Bay Wetlands, Margaret Kissane, The Lakeside Café Tralee Bay Wetlands, Mary O’Connor of Tralee Bay Wetlands and Alan Balfe, Wildlife and Education Officer at Tralee Bay Wetlands. Photo By : Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD ..THE fourth Kerry Wild Bee Festival will be take place on July 4th and 5th at Tralee Bay Wetlands.
On June 8, the festival launch took place with a talk by Jane Stout, who co-wrote the All Ireland Pollinator Plan. More than 60 people came to hear her speak about ‘Reversing wild bee decline’.
This year the festival will focus on ‘Developing community resilience with the help of our pollinators’. Transition Kerry will host an interactive conversation with Ballybunion Nature Group, Castlegregory Tidy Towns and Tralee Tidy Towns, focusing on their community actions for pollinators.
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When we take actions to restore nature, by creating habitats connected by ecological corridors for wild bees, this builds resilience in to our communities on many levels.
Festival events include planting fruit trees for pollinators at the Greenway with Friends of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway Community Group.
Transition Kerry is being joined by Save the Green for the ecological corridor walk, exploring how ‘Tralee’s bees need our green spaces and wetlands’.
Pictured at the launch of the Kerry Wild Bee Festival 2026, were Colette O’Connor, CEO of Tralee Chamber Alliance , Alan Balfe, Wildlife and Education Officer at Tralee Bay Wetlands and Mary O’Connor Tralee Bay Wetlands . Photo By : Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTDThere will also be a workshop on getting to know our wild bees and how to submit records to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
There is always a creative element to the festival and this year ‘TIMBER – meet your perfect plant match’ is back again with Mary Burke.
There will also be nature based art activities with Phil McSweeney, using willow grown in the grounds of the Wetlands. There will also be a community outreach visit with Ballybunion Nature Group in mid-July.
Pictured at the launch were Philip McSweeney with his daughters Ren and Lette from Tralee.Photo By : Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD
This festival is proudly supported by the Kerry County Council, Ceangal Local Authority Heritage Programme and is led by Transition Kerry in collaboration with Tralee Bay Wetlands Ecology Park, the Irish Wildlife Trust Kerry Branch, and a wide network of Tidy Towns groups and community organisations from across the county.
All events are free of charge and all are welcome. You can register here and reserve your place:
https://traleebaywetlands.org/nature/kerry-wild-bee-festival or phone Tralee Bay Wetlands reception at 066 7126700.
