Community groups from across Kerry will come together for a pollinator festival focused on building resilience through nature-based action. This year's festival theme is "Developing community resilience with the help of our pollinators".
Transition Kerry will host an interactive discussion featuring Ballybunion Nature Group, Castlegregory Tidy Towns and Tralee Tidy Towns. The event will examine how local communities are creating habitats and ecological corridors to support wild bees and other pollinators.
Organisers say these projects can provide multiple benefits, including flood mitigation, carbon storage, water retention and improved biodiversity. The initiatives also help strengthen community wellbeing while supporting climate adaptation efforts. The festival programme includes fruit tree planting along the Greenway with the Friends of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway Community Group.
Small Wonders — Young visitors explore nature up close during pollinator activities at Tralee Bay Wetlands, where the Kerry Wild Bee Festival will mix science, art and community action. Photo: Domnick Walsh
Save the Green will lead an ecological corridor walk exploring the importance of Tralee's green spaces and wetlands for pollinators. Visitors can also take part in a workshop on identifying wild bees and learn how to submit records to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Creative activities feature the return of Mary Burke's "TIMBER – Meet Your Perfect Plant Match" project, alongside nature-inspired art workshops led by Phil McSweeney using willow grown at Tralee Bay Wetlands.
A community outreach visit with Ballybunion Nature Group is also planned for July.
The festival is centred around Tralee Bay Wetlands Ecology Park, an award-winning biodiversity site that won the All-Ireland Pollinator Award in both 2023 and 2024. The Wetlands was also shortlisted for the LAMA All-Ireland Community and Council Awards 2026 in the Best Inclusive Community Wellbeing Initiative category.
Once a landfill site, the area has been transformed into a thriving habitat for wildlife and forms part of an ecological corridor linking waterways, greenways, parks and woodland around Tralee.
The festival is supported by Kerry County Council and the Ceangal Local Authority Heritage Programme. It is led by Transition Kerry in partnership with Tralee Bay Wetlands Ecology Park, the Irish Wildlife Trust Kerry Branch, Tidy Towns groups and community organisations across the county.
Transition Kerry said the event reflects its ongoing Community Climate Adaptation and Resilience Programme, which is supported by NEWKD LEADER funding.
