Azalea Festival 2009
March 14 - 15 2009
Free Admission
Azalea Festival coming March 14 and 15
The 9th Annual Valdosta-Lowndes Azalea Festival will be held on Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15 in Drexel Park across Patterson Street from the VSU main campus. The Azalea Festival will open at 10am each day and admission is free. "This is an event organized by members of our community and sponsored by various businesses, the County, City and Conference Center," says Grant Brown, Azalea Festival Executive Director. "Many people think the festival is organized by City or County employees and that just isn't the case. We enjoy wonderful support from the City and County but it's local citizens who make this thing happen," he says.
This year's Azalea Festival will feature several new attractions and a record number of arts and crafts vendors. A NASCAR simulator will be in the KidZone area of the park which is bound to attract adults as well as kids. A special new addition is a free photo booth where you can have pictures made with any number of backgrounds and costumes. The Native American Village will be expanded with more hands-on activities for everyone in addition to dances and ceremonial music. Rick Hubbard will present several shows each day featuring kazoos and mind-boggling juggling. Back by popular demand are the Robinson's Racing Pigs, the hilarious "Outertoons," inflatable attractions, a climbing wall, extreme Euro-bungee, petting zoo, pony rides and local clogging and dance groups. Special entertainers will stroll the grounds during the festival delighting everyone with magic and free balloon animals. The bands featured on Stage One this year are area favorites, "Sundance Jenkins" and "41 South."
"Over 150 vendors will be in Drexel Park for the Azalea Festival this year, which is a record number," says Brown. Just a few of the items offered include handmade jewelry, fabric totes, sunglasses, artwork, hammocks, candles and ceramics. In addition to local vendors we will have artisans from as far away as Minnesota, Virginia, Ohio and even Ontario, Canada. The Val Tech Horticulture Program will be back selling azaleas, other plants and planting materials at a discount price. Non-profit organizations from around our area will be set-up to explain their programs and offerings as well..
The popular Humane Society Pet Contest will be back at 2pm on Saturday. If you want to enter your pet in one or more of the several categories of the Pet Contest you may contact Angie at the Humane Society, 229-247-3266 or sign-up in Drexel Park at their booth anytime between 10am and 1:30pm. There is a small charge to enter so this becomes a fund-raiser for the local Humane Society.
The Azalea Festival weekend begins with a 5K Road Race and 1 mile Fun Run or Walk starting at Baytree and Sustella in front of the VSU Recreation Center at 8am on Saturday, March 14. Advanced registration for the races can be made with Sirocus Barnes (229-333-1861) at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority, which sponsors these events. Participants can also register the day of the Run/Walk starting at 7am. Special goodie bags, race numbers and t-shirts will be available to participants while supplies last.
For decades, Valdosta, Georgia, has been known as "The Azalea City" because of its luxuriant plantings of azaleas that provide mounds of beautiful blooms in the spring. In March of 2000, resident Joanne Griner met with three employees of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority who believed with her that the often-heard "We should have an azalea festival" was an idea whose time had come. Griner, Hilda Seymore, Beverly Pitzing and Andrea Cole began to recruit other "do-ers" in the community with event-production experience: Randall McClellan, Lena Bosch, Martha Gibson, Patsy Giles, Suzannah Patterson and Cheryl Marshall. Others came on board to form a grass-roots committee to apply for incorporation and tax-exempt status, enlist sponsors and develop events and activities to attract the public.
On March 17, 2001 the first-ever Valdosta-Lowndes Azalea Festival was born, attracting 5-8,000 people to beautiful Drexel Park. The park is named for a city employee who was instrumental in propagating azaleas and promoting their planting back in the 40's and 50's. Each following year has seen the addition of activities and expansion of festival hours. Over 30,000 people are expected for 2009 Azalea Festival, March 14 and 15 in Drexel Park.