Dancing through the Wilderness

Charlotte Chan

15 August 2013

Did you know that bees talk to each other by dancing?

If that's the case, I was doing a whole lot of talking at this year's Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire, while dressed up as a Friends of the Earth bee.

Every day we'd put on our bee suits and wander around the beautiful green grounds, chatting to people about our work and trying to recruit new support for the Bee Cause campaign.

Before long Friends of the Earth was known throughout the festival for our bees, our relaxing hay bales, and our amazing musical line-up on the busking stage, overlooking a lovely lake.

Friends of the Earth's busking stage at the Wilderness Festival

Then in the evening we'd get our dancing shoes on to do more talking bee-style.

The best moment for me was dancing on the Friends of the Earth busking stage to some rocking tunes. That in itself was fantastic, but then it started drawing a real crowd, with about a thousand others dancing along with us - such a surreal experience.

To top that off we managed to get rock trio London Grammar - who missed their set on the main stage - to play at our busking stage. The feeling was electric, and there I was in the middle of it all handing out stickers, collecting cash donations, and talking to people about why bees are so great and how we can help save them. 

The good times didn't end there. We got members from the band Noah and the Whale, known as No Underpants, to rock out on our stage too. 

And the cherry on the cake was when we got the green light to go up on the main stage in our bee suits to dance along to a band called The Bees - an experience that will stay with me forever.

Friends of the Earth bees dancing on the main Wilderness stage with the band The Bees

On the last day an actual bee bumbled up to me and danced around my bee suit as if to say "Thanks for all your hard work. You made us laugh trying to be like us." 

It was the perfect ending to my fantastic black and yellow Wilderness experience.

Charlotte Chan, Fair Transition Team

If you're inspired by our bees at Wilderness Festival and want to help support the Bee Cause campaign, you can get your bee saver kit today.