Bee swarm creates a buzz at Guildford festival

A swarm of bees which created a buzz at a festival in Surrey was moved into a nearby field by off-duty beekeepers.

The bees descended on an umbrella at Guilfest in Stoke Park, Guildford, on Sunday before they were escorted away from crowds, videos being shared online showed.

Clive Branch, a Guilfest visitor, said there appeared to be up to 1,000 bees present, describing the sight as a "large mass".

"I've never seen them at a public gathering like that, not with that amount of people," Branch told BBC Radio Surrey.

Cranleigh photographer Martin Bamford posted on Facebook that he had been walking away from the main stage when he saw thousands of insects flying around and realised it was a bee swarm.

He said he helped security staff work out the best way to handle it, adding: "With help from a couple of passing beekeepers, they carefully scooped the swarm from the umbrella they'd chosen as their temporary home and into a cardboard box.

"The crowd was parted, the box and umbrella were carried to the other side of the fence, and the remaining bees quickly followed the pheromones from the queen and disappeared too."

Security guards on hand at the music event were able to keep people away from the umbrella until it was safely moved into Jubilee Wood, which is in a different part of Stoke Park from the festival.

Tony Scott, Guilfest founder, joked that security were more "worried" about the bees' lack of wristbands, and said the bees followed the keepers away from revellers "like pied piper".

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