Bee the Change Summer Activities Launched at

St David’s Cardiff

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 bumblebeethemed 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 onsite 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.