bugfest photoFor Immediate Release | Contact: Mike Charbonneau, 919-485-7413

Research Triangle Park, NC (Sept. 8 2017) – If you’re one of the 30,000 bug enthusiasts expected to swarm the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ popular BugFest event this year, don’t wing it. Plan to bypass potentially pesky parking problems in Downtown Raleigh by turning the day into a BusFest as well.

GoRaleigh, GoTriangle and GoCary offer many routes that will land you near the nation’s largest one-day bug-centric event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 16 and features 100 exhibits, crafts, games and activities. Visitors also will have the opportunity to interact with entomologists and other scientists and to sample—yes, eat—bugs prepared by local chefs.

“Parking downtown can be a hassle, so I would take the bus,” said Kari Wouk, senior manager of educational collaborations at the museum. “It’s better for the world, it’s better for your time and it’s a great way to see your community. There is a lot going on that day, and they are closing roads south of us for that, so you can avoid all of it by taking the bus and coming right straight to the event.”

  • GoRaleigh outbound Routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 travel Wilmington Street and stop near the museum, as do inbound Routes 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 16, which travel Salisbury or Morgan streets. Map your route at GoRaleigh.org.
  • Traveling from Orange or Durham counties or Northwest Wake County? Park at the Regional Transit Center in Durham and take GoTriangle Route 100 to the corner of Salisbury and Morgan streets near the museum. Thanks to voter-approved investments in the Wake Transit Plan, Route 100 now runs every 30 minutes on Saturdays starting at 7:30 a.m. at the RTC. The routes leaving Raleigh for the RTC run every 30 minutes as well until 5:40 p.m., when they become hourly. The last bus leaves GoRaleigh Station at 9:40 p.m. and arrives at the RTC at 10:25 p.m.
  • Those traveling from Western Wake can park at the Cary Train Station and ride to Raleigh on GoTriangle Route 300, operated by GoCary. The route leaves the station every 30 minutes starting at 7 a.m. and arrives at GoRaleigh Station three blocks from the museum. Route 300 runs back from GoRaleigh Station to Cary every 30 minutes until 6:30 p.m., when it becomes hourly, with the last bus leaving at 9:30 p.m. and arriving at the Cary Train Station at 9:55 p.m. Map a GoTriangle route at GoTriangle.org. For help or more information, please call 919-485-7433. For GoCary routes, visit townofcary.org/gocary

BugFest No. 21

BugFest started 21 years ago with an exhibit featuring Native Americans, who collected grasshoppers and ate them. The museum offered visitors a chance to eat grasshoppers, too, Wouk said.

“It just completely took off from there,” she said. “I think some people are just fascinated by the idea of it. It’s unusual in Western culture, but 80 percent of the countries in the world eat bugs. We’re actually in the minority to think it’s unusual or gross.”

Insects are actually good for you, being high in fiber, protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Crickets, mealworms and super worms will be on the menu at the museum’s Café Insecta and among the attending food trucks, one of which will be serving Mongolian-style mealworms.

“I’ve had all of those,” Wouk said. “Oh, and we have had ants. One of the dishes we prepare here just for my staff is cricket bark, which is chocolate, Craisins and crickets. It’s a great combination, especially with some salt on it.”

Taste isn’t the only sense to be tantalized. Visitors should get their eyes and ears ready as well for highlights such as the live tarantula feeding at noon in the museum’s Daily Planet Theater.

“We’ll have microphones and a VisCam projected onto a large screen,” Wouk said. “Apparently, you can hear the tarantula crunching its crickets or special cockroaches we feed him for extra crunch. Everyone will have a really good view of him devouring his prey.”

Eyes also will get their fill of Mexican red-rump tarantulas, brown marmorated stinkbugs, whip-tail scorpions, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, tobacco hornworm hawkmoths, death-feigning beetles and more.

Entomologists from North Carolina State University, officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality and inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, among other experts, will be on hand to answer questions, and the museum staff has worked hard to make the event accessible to everyone, Wouk said.

“We altered the floor plan to make it more accessible to those using wheelchairs,” she said. “People with no or low vision can schedule a sighted guide, and we also have sign language interpreters for the deaf community.”

The museum events are free. GoRaleigh fares are only $1.25, GoCary’s are $1.50 and GoTriangle’s are $2.25 each way, with discounted fares available for children, seniors and those who are disabled. Buy passes ahead of time at GoTriangle.org or have correct cash ready when you board. You can track when your bus will arrive by downloading the TransLoc app or checking out at triangle.transloc.com.

Once you’ve found your route, consider taking transit to other upcoming events in Downtown Raleigh, such as SPARKcon, Sept. 14-17, and the World of Bluegrass festivities, Sept. 26-Sept. 30.

At BugFest, attendees will get the chance to vote on the theme for next year’s event. This year, the dragonfly reigns. Last year, the ant.

“It makes it fun for us, to change some of the things around so it’s not the same every year,” Wouk said. “Next year, who knows what it will be? I’m hoping for a non-insect.”

If you’re wondering what bugs qualify as non-insects, you might just have to take a bus to BugFest and ask.

BUGFEST 2017

When: Saturday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus festivities including live bands, bug stations and a nocturnal insect tour from 5 to 7 p.m.
Where: N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W. Jones St., Raleigh, NC 27601
How: Plan your bus route at gotriangle.org or goraleigh.org or townofcary.org/gocary.
More Information: bugfest.org

Photos courtesy of North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

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