It’s official! Spring has Sprung, and kicks off the season with the 58th Annual North Carolina Azalea Festival. I would have to say aside from the festivals beautiful trademark of the full bloomed azaleas and hydrangeas, one of my favorite aspects of the Azalea Festival would have be the Historic Home Tour. Tickets to the tour are $25.00 and can be purchased on either the Wilmington Historic Foundations website or on the Azalea Festivals home website. The tour takes place every year on the Saturday morning of the Azalea Fest weekend and showcases nine to ten homes in the Historic District of Downtown Wilmington that are over 100 years old. The homes are selected by their individual curb appeal and grandiose architectural aspects. Many people including locals and some “out of towners” are very curious about what one of these stately homes look like inside and this is their chance to walk inside and out of the homes on the tour. Some of the showcased homes have been preserved in their original state with careful maintenance and upkeep, where as others have been completely renovated meeting the requirements by the Wilmington Historic Foundation to keep the upgrades uniform with the homes original historic characteristics. Local designers in the Wilmington area that specialize in the renovation of these historic homes work hand in hand with the Historic Foundation of Wilmington to assure that the homes do not become “modernized” to keep the historic charm alive. Aside from the Historic Home Tour the Azalea
Festivals also boasts an exquisite garden tour as well so for those of you with a “green thumb” put on your garden hats and come critique these twelve area gardens. The garden tour has been featured in Southern
Living magazine and is one of the longest running garden tours in the south. As if you don’t have enough with the two tours to keep you busy during the festival don’t forget to check out the street fair downtown
on Water Street that takes place on both Saturday and Sunday. The street fair has all the fair fixing’s like funnel cakes, Italian sausages, live music, various contests and a fireworks display around nine on
Saturday night. If you are in the Wilmington area for the weekend of April 8th the Azalea Festival is something you definitely don’t want to miss!
Theme Design by devolux.nh2.me