St David’s Cardiff has unveiled a new installation to kickstart a summer of fun, crafty bee-saving events designed to educate, engage and inspire guests during August.
The new ‘Bee the Change’ campaign has been launched with the installation of a bumblebee-themed display adorning one of the city shopping centre’s malls. A specialist team was brought in after hours to intricately build the aerial display within The Hayes Arcade, which features more than 6,000 silk flowers and foliage stems and 200 giant bees flying through a honeycomb-inspired design.
A new floral decorated arch, which boasts 1,000 colourful flowers, has also been built to overlook the display from the upper level of the Grand Arcade within St David’s with guests invited to pose for pictures and selfies to help spread the word about saving bees.
Bee the Change was chosen as the message for St David’s Cardiff’s summer campaign to help raise awareness of the decline of bees which are vital for the pollination of global food crops. The centre has several of its own beehives on-site which produce honey and has implemented a number of eco-friendly initiatives including becoming a zero-waste-to-landfill site in 2012 and using 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Across the summer, St David’s will host a series of fun, eco-craft events to educate, engage and inspire guests to make a simple change to support local biodiversity and help the plight of bees. This includes plant pot painting and wildflower seed planting, bug hotel building, and bee-feeder making. The free workshops will take place across every weekend during August in the lower level of the Grand Arcade, next to MenKind, and will give guests the opportunity to make a difference by taking a #beethechange pledge.
Helen Morgan, Centre Director at St David’s Dewi Sant, commented: “Bees are relied upon to effectively pollinate crops, providing all of us with the food we eat every day. However, bee numbers are in huge decline which poses a serious threat to food production as well as their future preservation.
“At St David’s, we’ve already planted wildflowers on our roof to attract bees as well as being home to thousands of bees in our rooftop hives. Through our Bee the Change campaign this summer, we hope we can spread the message even further whether through our eye-catching decorative displays, our free hands-on eco workshops or by asking guests to make a bee-saving pledge.”
The centre is also hosting a photo competition to celebrate a summer of Bee-ing the Change; guests are invited to snap a selfie in front of the stunning floral arch located between River Island and Victoria’s Secret and share it on Facebook or Instagram for the chance to win a £500 St David’s gift card. For full entry details, visit the St David’s website.
Bee the Change event details:
- Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th August: Summer Seeds – Wildflower workshop with plant pot painting, planting wildflower seeds and creating a card embedded with wildflower seeds.
- Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August: Bee Kind to Bugs – Learn about the brilliance of bugs and help make them a home in this bug hotel workshop.
- Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August: Protect Pollinators – Make a bee feeder and learn about pollinators.
- Saturday 26th, Sunday 27th and Monday 28th August: A medley of activities from the three previous weekends – Summer Seeds, Bee Kind to Bugs and Protect Pollinators.
The Bee the Change installation is open now until Sunday 3rd September 2023.
