WE DID IT! Photos from the day before the ball...!

WE DID IT! We made our 18,000$ kickstarter goal!

We can't thank our friends, family, and supporters enough for making this year's Blackfly ball and August Workparty happen. The ball was amazing, and so were the final days of the workparty! We've got tons of photos, and here are some of the last 24 hours before the ball. Stay tuned for photos from the night of the ball.

If you want to see even more photos, our photographer friend Nicola Krebill is here taking hundreds of photos every day! You can check out his Flickr account to see more!

Bill continues working on the beautiful lanterns up in the park...

Here's Claire helping hang our beautifully hand sewn and stenciled flags.

Check back for pictures of the finished park decorations in all their glory.

The screenprint studio was busting out beautiful prints non-stop the day and night before the ball...

The New Orleans Eris flag team rehearsed on the finished deck for their daytime performance at the blueberry festival with Hungry March Band.

We were lucky enough to have talented artists creating beautiful signs to hang all over the park.

Including some DIY road signs to help keep truck traffic down when people traffic was at its highest.

We did lots of work to create structures to hang banners and lights from, so we could illuminate the park through the misty Maine evening.

A team of folks reassembled our fantastic fairbooth to sell posters and crafts during the festival

It's a team effort to put it all up!

As one of our many tables throughout the weekend- the fairbooth served as a hot spot for beehive posters, patches, and educational materials- as well as all the really amazing hand bound books, screen printed posters and patches, delicately painted buttons, hand sewn bags... and so so much more. These lovely crafts were an intricate part of finishing strong with our fundraising campaign.

It's also a huge group effort to cook for 300 people! Here's our kitchen crew with a massive food prep party of vegetable chopping!

Whew, check out that slaw!

Of course, we had thousands of posters to roll to get ready for the big night, and it took a whole slew of people to make it happen.

Working nearby to the poster rollers were the folks who were learning how to do a beautiful Mexican fabric cut-out backdrop.

Like many of the hand made decorations at the ball- it carried the theme of the blue orchard bee.

It got finished just in time!

We had an evening show the night before the ball. Look at that beautiful backdrop! Here's our friends The Auroratones performing the night before to get us ready for the ball!

Stay tuned for the photos of the blackfly ball!

24 hours until the ball!

ONLY 24 HOURS LEFT UNTIL THE BALL! The bees are buzzing and running as fast as they can to get everything ready for the ball! Over 100 people are eating at our house and getting ready for our biggest ball ever! Not only that, but all of our projects in the town of Machias are wrapping up beautifully!

One of our volunteers, Mujahid, recorded a personal interview with folks from the workparty. Give it a listen while you look at these photos!

This work is possible only because of the enthusiastic energy of volunteers and the generous donations of our supporters from near and far. We can't do this without you! Please visit our Kickstarter Campaign and consider making a donation to get our worker bees over the finish line. You can also give us cash or check donations at our house (101 court street in Machias), at the Machias Valley Grange & Cultural Center (1 Elm Street). Project collaborators include the Machias Rotary Club and Viking Lumber, which is providing lumber at cost.

We got 20 people to put the heaviest part of the wheelchair lift onto the newly refurbished stairwell!

Not only did we have to reinforce the stairwell to hold the weight of the lift, but we had to enclose it completely to keep the motor safe from rain and snow.

We had to keep working, even in the rain...

We also had to keep dancing, even in the rain...

Not only did we work on finishing painting the Whole Life building, but we're also hanging banners up to advertise the festival.

...and of course, we're still rolling posters...

Our book binding production is getting faster and faster! Books are being made to be sold to fund raise at the blueberry festival.

Printing, Printing, and more printing at the craft house...

Not to mention that we've been sewing, sewing, and more sewing for our massive park decorations plan...

Not only do we create lots of books, but we're teaching lots of folks how to do it...

The line for meals is getting longer and longer...

Our meals are feeding more and more people every day...

...and we're washing more and more dishes each day!

The set that we made for the blueberry festival was completed just in time!

We're painting over 40 signs to put all over the park the night of the ball...

Our decorations are coming together beautifully!

Beautiful stencils were made to decorate our park flags...

Don't worry, we always remember to have fun while we're working.

We finished painting the Whole Life building this week!

We got to participate in banner drops all over town!

We also got to hang banners off the bank in the middle of town

We never forget to swim on these beautiful summer days...

Last night we had a talent show! We had an incredible turn out of wonderful performers!

We were serenaded with music from all sort of wonderful musicians

And at the end of the show, we had an impromptu wedding on stage! Do you work party, agree to take work party, as your loftly wedded work party, in sickness or in health?

WE DO!

If you want to see even more photos, our photographer friend Nicola Krebill is here taking hundreds of photos every day! You can check out his Flickr account to see more!

Four Days til' the Ball!

There are just four days left until the Blackfly Ball! From creating beautiful works of art to structural building projects, our bees are busier than ever before... and with all of our projects and preparations running full tilt, we're about to dash across the finish line to a magical night of celebration & community!

This work is possible only because of the enthusiastic energy of volunteers and the generous donations of our supporters from near and far. We can't do this without you! Please visit our Kickstarter Campaign and consider making a donation to get our worker bees over the finish line. You can also give us cash or check donations at our house (101 court street in Machias), at the Machias Valley Grange & Cultural Center (1 Elm Street). Project collaborators include the Machias Rotary Club and Viking Lumber, which is providing lumber at cost.

The Wild Blueberry Festival is just around the corner, and the set for the play is coming together beautifully!

The Blueberry Musical will be showing this week at the Centre Street Congregational Church.

Folks are working around the clock to make crafts that will be sold at the Blueberry Festival. We're turning the Beano/Bingo cards from the Grange into books!

Bookbinding, screenprinting, puppet-making, oh my!

Folks are scaling scaffolding stacked six stories high to paint the Whole Life building...

We have to assemble the scaffolding in mid-air!


We're hoping for good weather so that we can get it all done before the ball-- keep your fingers crossed for us!


The accessibility project is running along swimmingly-- Matt is installing a rooftop over the stairwell so that the wheelchair lift will stay safe from rain and snow.


It's all coming together really quickly!

It helps that Matt is not afraid of heights!

Our decorations committee is creating beautiful and intricate sculptures and flags to adorn the beloved park.


Coming soon... more pictures of the amazing progress of the decorations crew...


Folks from all over the country come to celebrate their regions and help us celebrate ours. Molly has a tattoo of the state of ohio on her back, which means we don't get to keep her!

Being a bee has never been more fun.

On Sunday, we played a game of Ninja that must have broken world records for attendance.

We're so lucky to have the opportunity to make such good friends with such kind, talented, and passionate folks.

We're almost done putting up the two temporary outdoor stages for our 10+ bands performing this year!


Look for more photos later this week upon completion of the backdrop!


We took an adventure to six mile lake on the night of the full moon to swim and be merry...


... and to keep our chins up and admire the stars.


If you want to see even more photos, our photographer friend Nicola Krebill is here taking hundreds of photos every day! You can check out his Flickr account to see more!