 Wilmington,
NC – March 2015 / Newsmaker Alert / When it comes to flower
festivals in the South, it’s hard to top the North
Carolina Azalea Festival, a Wilmington tradition since 1948. The
five-day festival welcomes spring in grand style with pageantry, merriment
and Southern flair. Each year, Queen Azalea opens the North Carolina Azalea
Festival, arriving by riverboat for her official coronation. This year
the festival’s very first queen in 1948, actress Jacqueline White Anderson,
will participate in the Queen’s Coronation to crown Mallory Hagan (Miss
America 2013) as Queen Azalea 2015. The fanfare continues with Cape Fear
Garden Club Azalea Belles dressed in colorful hoop skirts and parasols.
In the days that follow, festival highlights include juried arts and craft
shows, a traveling circus, fireworks (Saturday night), and a street fair
(Fri./Sat./Sun.) with exhibits, vendors, live music, entertainment and
kids’ activities. There’s also an elaborate 2-hour parade on Saturday morning
(beginning at 9:30 a.m.) in historic Wilmington, complete with azalea-laden
floats, marching bands, clowns, show animals, local pageant winners and
celebrity guests. This year’s parade viewing area will be along Third Street,
from Market to Bladen streets.
There’s also much ado about
azaleas, the colorful flowering shrubs that enhance Wilmington’s landscape
each spring. Azaleas make appearances at every event, but nowhere are they
more prominent than at the festival’s official featured tours: the Cape
Fear Garden Club’s Azalea
Garden Tour and the Historic Wilmington Foundation’s Azalea
Home Tour.
The Cape Fear Garden Club
Azalea Garden Tour, April 10-12, is one of the South’s longest-running
and most popular garden tours. The 62nd annual Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea
Garden Tour theme is “Cherish the Past; Embrace the Future” to commemorate
the club’s 90th anniversary in 2015. This year’s tour showcases 10 private
and public gardens that include a mix of established and new lovingly tended
landscapes. Garden tour price includes free admission to Airlie Gardens
on Saturday and Sunday. For details and tickets: www.capefeargardenclub.org/azalea-garden-tour.
Another time-honored sanctioned event is the Azalea Home Tour, April 12
and 13, showcasing nine private homes and a church of historical and architectural
interest. Homes are chosen to represent the wide variety of architectural
styles found in Wilmington. For home tour tickets: www.historicwilmington.org
.
Live music is a big part
of every N.C. Azalea Festival. This year’s headline acts include country
superstar Alan Jackson and rap powerhouse Nelly. With more than 150 music
awards to his credit, Alan Jackson brings his 25th Anniversary Keepin’
It Country Tour to the N.C. Azalea Festival on April 9. Over his 25-year
music career, Jackson has sold nearly 60 million albums worldwide and ranks
as one of the 10 best-selling country artists of all time. Joining Jackson
are Capitol Records Nashville’s rising new artist Jon Pardi and Grammy/CMA/ACM
nominated singer/songwriter Brandy Clark.
Grammy-winning superstar
rapper Nelly will delight audiences on April 10 with his #1 hits like “Hot
in Here” and “Dilemma.” Since his rap music debut in 2000, Nelly has made
his mark as a rapper, singer, song-writer, clothing designer, actor and
philanthropist. Catch Nelly in concert before he heads out on a summer
tour with the New Kids on the Block and TLC.
All headline concerts are
outdoors on the Miller Lite Main Stage at the Cape Fear Community College
Campus in Downtown Wilmington (411 N. Front Street). Concerts begin at
7:00 p.m.; gates open at 6:00 p.m. Concerts are rain or shine; standing
room only. Tickets for all concerts are available online at www.ncazaleafestival.org
and at the N.C. Azalea Festival Office (5724 Oleander Drive, Ste. B7; Mon.-Fri.,
9am-5pm). Chairs, backpacks, umbrellas, coolers are not permitted inside
the venue. Chairs, food and beverage will be available for cash purchase.
Other notable celebrities
scheduled to make guest appearances at the 2015 N.C. Azalea Festival include:
Disney star Skai Jackson (plays Zuri Ross on Disney’s “Jessie”); HGTV star/interior
designer Meg Caswell; Southern novelist/Azalea Festival artist Clyde Edgerton;
Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings; Pro beach volleyball star Casey
Jennings; NYT best-selling author/former fighter pilot Dan Hampton; Actress/first
Azalea Festival queen Jacqueline White Anderson; former Miss North Carolina
USA Julia Dalton; Miss North Carolina Beth Stovall; and Miss America 2013
Mallory Hagan (Queen Azalea).
Introduced last year, the
N.C. Azalea Festival App (iTunes
& Google
Play) makes it easy for attendees to keep up with event information
by providing breaking entertainment news, behind-the-scenes buzz, and insider
tips. For App details, a festival schedule and concert tickets, visit www.ncazaleafestival.org
or call 910-794-4650, or stop by the Festival ticket office (5725 Oleander
Dr., Wilmington).
Go with the flow…and see
where the water takes you. Surrounded by water, Wilmington,
N.C. and its island beaches are a convenient drive from Raleigh via
I-40 and Charlotte via US 74. If you’re flying in to experience the N.C.
Azalea Festival, the Wilmington International
Airport (ILM) offers daily flights to major airline hubs. For a free
2015 Official Visitors Guide to Wilmington, North Carolina and the island
beaches of Carolina Beach,
Kure
Beach and Wrightsville
Beach, call 866-266-9690, email visit@wilmingtonandbeaches.com,
or visit www.GoWilmingtonAndBeaches.com.
Media
Contact:
Wilmington
and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau
Connie
Nelson
Communications/PR
Director
910-332-8751
866-266-9690
ext. 120
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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.
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