OUR VENUES KEEP RALEIGH BUZZING!

A small colony of animated bees hovers over two honeycombs with the title in the center reading "We Keep Raleigh Buzzing"

A Buzzworthy Announcement

The Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts and Raleigh Convention Center now feature beehives in their gardens!

Both venues are proud to keep Raleigh buzzing with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Whether here to enjoy a performance, a convention, or special event, our attendees and patrons keep our region strong by staying in hotels, enjoying meals at restaurants, and visiting local businesses. And, now, we're excited to support our local community in a new way: bees!

Honeybees are critical to the pollination of plants, gardens, and crops. To support the local honeybee population, the Raleigh Convention and Performing Arts Complex installed two hives on its properties. The Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts' hive is located on the east lawn of Lichtin Plaza, while the Raleigh Convention Center's hive is located in front of its Sir Walter Raleigh statue.

Beginning next spring, Centerplate, the Complex's in-house caterer, will feature fresh honey from the hives in the Complex's cocktails, snacks, and dishes!

Both hives are maintained by Apiopolis, a Raleigh-based beekeeping organization with hives located throughout the city. The hive structures were designed and manufactured by Raleigh-based Flitch Furniture.

You can view the Martin Marietta Center's hive install here.

Unbeelievable But True

About Bees

  • It takes a distance equal to 13 trips to the moon and back to create 150 pounds of honey. 1
  • Honey bees visit five million flowers to make one pint of honey. 2
  • Honeybees fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second3
  • Pollinators facilitate the growth of plants, fruits, and vegetables that make up one-third of our diet4

About Our Gardens

  • The gardens at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts and the Raleigh Convention Center are planted and maintained by the City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department. Staff from both venues also volunteered in the planting of the new garden on Lichtin Plaza at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, which was installed on September 18, 2019.
  • Both gardens feature perennials that bloom at various times of the year. The Lichtin Plaza garden incorporates nearly 175 different types of grasses, nearly all native to North Carolina. These include 70 muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia ‘White Cloud’), 70 fountain grasses (Pennisetum ‘Karley Rose’) and 35 switch grasses (Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’). Some will grow to be 5' tall!
  • Throughout the year, the foliage in the Lichtin Plaza garden will showcase pinks, whites, and blues
  • The Raleigh Convention Center's gardens are irrigation- and fertilizer-free. Their design was meant to mimic a dry river bed and features rocks taken from a variety of City of Raleigh parks.
  • Thanks to the success and health of the garden, a number of plants grown in the Raleigh Convention Center's planters have been moved to the city’s greenhouse to propagate new plants for other City parks.