The Blackfly Ball! So many photos! Oh my!

Thanks to you, WE DID IT! We made our $18,000 fundraising goal!

Here are some photos of the final day of the 2011 workparty... the 6th Annual Blackfly Ball!

We can't thank our friends, family, and supporters enough for making this year's Blackfly ball and August Workparty a smashing success. It was an absolutely incredible month. Here are some photos from the grand finale of the ball itself!

If you want to see even more photos, our photographer friend Nicola Krebill took hundreds of beautiful photos each day! You can check out his Flickr account to see more!

Our day started off with Hungry March Band doing what they do best... marching! We marched from our house to the Congregational Church down the street, spreading music throughout the town.

The New Orleans Eris Flag Team performed while the band played on the church steps.


As the band roared on, a dance party took place in the street.

Dance, bees, dance!

Our friends Deep Chatham busked during the festival to add to the entertainment during the Blueberry Festival.

Our good friend Ivan from The Auroratones played, too!

Ivan serenaded not only the festival, but the worker bees who were getting the puppet show all set up and ready to go.

The puppet show set that worker bees painted on all month was revealed for it's opening performance at the festival- it's so beautiful!

The puppet show drew a nice crowd and was a huge success!

While folks were at the blueberry festival marching and singing, bees were getting the grange and park stages ready for the ball.

The ball including a massive amount of baked goods for everyone to enjoy.

We gathered fresh flowers to decorate the grange.

Beautiful!

All of the crafts and screenprints sold like hotcakes at our fairbooth! Thanks for the donations, everyone!

People from near and far dressed to the nines began arriving promptly at 6pm for the evening's festivities...

So many folks had made their own costumes!

Or picked out something with flair to wear... an opportunity all too rare in our neck of the woods!

This year's dance had more children in attendance than ever! Whole families, along with extended family visitors in town for the Blueberry festival, came out in force to appreciate the safety improvements to the park and enjoy the all-ages phenomenon that is the Blackfly Ball!

Next year, we're hoping to organize even more activities for children.  

Folks dressed their best, with ruffles, lace, glitter, and more!

Back at home, folks got ready for the ball! Over 100 people stayed in our yard... the tent city covered the two acres of land that the Bees live on.

...and the glamour even spilled into parking lots!

What can we say? Everyone looked lovely... This is Carles, who came from Spain to lend his talents to our month long workparty...

...and so many folks looked dapper!

Amazing outfits, ladies!

Even the bees got dressed up!

Nicholas Francis led the evening on the park stage!

Our good friend Danae from East Machias played on the second stage.

Youth from Machias got the chance to rock out on our park stage!

As per tradition, the Orange River Jazz Band led the night upstairs in the grange.

The Orange River Jazz Band has been the house band for the grange for over 40 years.

Folks from all different generations come to enjoy the events in the grange.

As dusk began to fall, our friends Owen and Naomi did an acrobatic performance by the park stage.

Amazing!

All night long, huge trucks were driving through the crowd onto their way to the blueberry plant up the hill. Thankfully, we had a wonderful crew of dedicated volunteers to keep the corner safe by acting as crossguards.

Emma led the team, and kept the festival safe!

Nice work, traffic team!

And as the sun finally set, the torches were lit!

Not only was the evening beautiful, but a ghostly fog fell on the crowd, making the decorations even more magical!

On the waterfall stage, the newly replaced dance floor filled up quick! This was the first time that we've been able to dance on the deck, thanks to the work of the whole 2011 workparty!

Our good friends Sam Doores & the Tumbleweeds played a fantastic set!

On the park stage, Shirim Klezmer Orchestra led a riotous dance party!

Shirim led quite a rumpus in the park!

Next to Shirim, the giant coal banner was up for all to see!

The Ukelele Orchestra rocked our socks off downstairs in the Grange!

Our wonderful safety team kept vigilant throughout the night!

In between sets the Blackfly Step Team broke it down on the waterfall stage- a team of work party volunteers.


Here's a video of the step team's performance from the talent show we had the night before!

The park stage was magical all night long!

Once Hurray for the Riff Raff hit the stage, the waterfall stage filled with couples and friends slowdancing and waltzing through the mist.

The waterfall stage looked so beautiful that it left lots of folks buzzing about the possibilities for the newly safe deck!



Then, Hungry March Band took us on a marching dance party for the last set of the night!

We danced til' we dropped!

Hungry March played on the second stage, and then marched to the waterfall stage to end the night!

A perfect end to a perfect Blackfly Ball.

Thank you everyone who made this year possible! Next, us bees are getting ready for fall tour- as we head out across the United States sharing the graphic narratives we've been creating for years.

Check out www.beehivecollective.org to stay tuned to our future projects! You can check out the Beehive Collective on both our Facebook and our Twitter. Keep in touch!