| Wilmington,
NC – March 2018 / Newsmaker Alert / From its charming riverfront
to nearby island beaches, Wilmington,
North Carolina is known for sweeping coastal landscapes. An alluring
sight to behold year-round, springtime in Wilmington is especially dazzling
when gazillions of azaleas add colorful pink, red and purple accents. There’s
always much ado about spring when these showy perennials bloom. Each April
since 1948, the North Carolina
Azalea Festival (April 11-15) celebrates this floral phenomenon with
a salute to the season. One of the South’s oldest and largest annual events,
the N.C. Azalea Festival showcases regional art, gardens, history, and
culture through recreational, educational, cultural and family events.
Now in its 71st year, the
N.C. Azalea Festival is a Southeast Tourism Society Top 20 Event that continues
to evolve while honoring traditions of festivals past. On Wednesday April
11, this year’s Queen Azalea, Beth
Troutman (Emmy Award-winning TV personality/motivational speaker),
will open the festival during a riverfront coronation, along with reigning
Miss North Carolina Victoria Huggins and a court of Carolina queens. They
will be joined by dozens of Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles wearing
hoop skirts with matching parasols. On Saturday morning, they will join
an elaborate parade along Third Street that begins at 9:30 a.m. with flowery
floats, marching bands, clowns, and celebrity guests. The fun continues
Saturday and Sunday with an art show, coin show, shag contests, and a waterfront
street fair with exhibits, live entertainment and kids’ activities. Saturday
evening events include live music and fireworks along the riverfront.
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Other festival-sanctioned
events include the Historic Wilmington Foundation’s Azalea
Home Tour and the Cape Fear Garden Club’s Azalea
Garden Tour. The Azalea Home Tour (April 14-15) showcases 11 private
homes. Homes are chosen to represent an array of architectural styles found
in Wilmington. For home tour tickets: historicwilmington.org.
There’s also the ever-popular Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour
(April 13-15), one of the South’s longest-running garden tours. With the
theme “Bloomin’ Beautiful,” the 65th annual tour features nearly a dozen
private and public gardens that include a mix of established and new floral
landscapes. Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles will greet guests and plein-air
artists will paint in the gardens over the weekend, then display/sell their
work at a wet paint sale at the Cape
Fear Museum (Sunday). For details and tickets: capefeargardenclub.org/azalea-garden-tour.
Live music is a highlight
of the N.C. Azalea Festival, featuring local, regional and national artists.
This year’s national headline concerts include: Billy Currington with Drake
White and Kenton Bryant (Thursday); 38 Special with Tuesdays Gone (Friday);
and Ludacris with Childish Major (Saturday). Headline concerts are held
outdoors on the Main Stage at the Cape Fear Community College Campus in
Downtown Wilmington (411 N. Front Street). Concerts (rain or shine; standing
room only) begin at 7:00 p.m.; gates open at 5:00 p.m. New to the musical
lineup this year are two concerts at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater: Old
School Concert (with Ying Yang Twins, Chubb Rock and The Hamiltones) at
4:00 p.m. on Saturday; and The Dark Star Orchestra (presented by 98.3 The
Penguin) will perform at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. For concert tickets, visit
ncazaleafestival.org/tickets.
Other guest celebrities who
will make appearances throughout the festival include: Writer/Blogger Adrian
Wood, 2018 Festival Artist Virginia Wright-Frierson, and Chef Vivian Howard
(star of PBS “A Chef’s Life,” author of “Deep Run Roots,” and restaurant
owner of Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria in Wilmington, Chef and the Farmer and
The Boiler Room in Kinston). For a complete festival schedule, ticket information
and more, call 910-794-4650, visit ncazaleafestival.org
or the festival ticket office (5725 Oleander Dr., Wilmington).
About Wilmington and its
Island Beaches
Spring is in the salt air
with blooms and events in Wilmington,
N.C. and the beaches of Carolina
Beach,
Kure
Beach and Wrightsville
Beach. For a free Official Visitors Guide, call 866-266-9690 or email
visit@wilmingtonandbeaches.com.
For visitor information and seasonal highlights, visit wilmingtonandbeaches.com/things-to-do/seasonal-highlights.
Find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/CapeFearCoastNC
and Twitter and Instagram,
@WilmingtoNCoast.
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Source Document
Media Contact:
Wilmington
and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau
Connie
Nelson
Communications/PR
Director
910-332-8751
866-266-9690
ext. 120
The
New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority d/b/a Wilmington and Beaches
Convention and Visitors Bureau is the official destination marketing organization
of New Hanover County, North Carolina that stimulates economic development
through the promotion of travel and tourism. |
