Rutherglen's first ever biodiversity themed festival is on its way.
Buzzfest, has been organised by Grow 73 and various community groups to tackle loneliness and encourage biodiversity within the area.
The festival is encouraging people to pick up a picnic blanket and come and join the fun.
There will be storytelling, face painting, and live music on the day.
The festival is taking place on Sunday, June 5, at Overtoun Park and everyone is invited to come along and take part between 12-4pm.
Eugenie Aroutcheff, project coordinator for Grow 73, told Lanarkshire Live:" Every year we do big lunches, and the purpose of this is to encourage people to come have a picnic and invite their friends or neighbours and the aim of it is to reduce isolation and loneliness.
“We started that six years ago and it was popular.
“During the lockdown, we started the beeline project. We sent out planting kits to people and schools within the area so that eventually people could go out and plant them in the planters. That grew arms and legs very quickly.
“It was all about increasing biodiversity and learning about pollinators.
“So we decided to do a festival where everyone in the community can come together. The idea had been floating around for a while.
“It will be a free event and we’ve got some groups already working on sculptures.
“We gave some of the group's paper lanterns and they went on to make an insect that is a pollinator and it can become their mascot.”
Grow 73 hope that if the event is a success then they will be able to make it an annual occurrence for members of the community.
Eugenie added: “The message is to increase biodiversity and to try to get people to go outdoors and do something with nature.
“The festival wouldn't be able to happen without the help of other organisations, without these groups it wouldn’t be possible.”
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