Bees ‘wing it’ to show off their painting skills at Queen Mary’s Festival of Communities

Bees painting pictures are showing off their skills at this year’s Festival of Communities celebrating the East End’s culture and diversity.

Families join in Queen Mary's research at last year's Festival of Communities. Picture: Jonathan Cole - Credit: Jonathan Cole

The festival returns for its fourth year to show academic research through a weekend of family activities starting Saturday week, June 15, at Stepney Green Park, and the next day at Queen Mary University's Mile End Campus, both days 11.30am to 4.30pm.

"The festival is a chance for people to explore ground-breaking research happening right on their doorstep," Queen Mary's Dean Peter McOwan said. "They'll see how our researchers work on projects that change lives."

The research includes bees painting artworks and what life's like as a Turtle.

Youngsters can also build their own city to see how their design can effect air pollution, use virtual reality technology to explore the Hyper-K neutrino detector beneath a mountain in Japan and help create a mural.

Families join in Queen Mary's research at last year's Festival of Communities. Picture: Jonathan Cole - Credit: Jonathan Cole

Sports fans can test their football skills, take a basketball hoop challenge and scale a climbing wall.

Organisations staging the two-day festival with Queen Mary include Tower Hamlets Council, Stepney's Stifford centre and the Salvation Army. Other organisations showing projects are Spitalfields city farm and St John's Ambulance.