The traditional annual event has been postponed this year until July 30.
“But we didn’t want to wait that long to celebrate spring in our area,” said Alison Baringer English, executive director of the festival. “That’s a big part of what the Azalea Festival is about.”
So instead, the Hamerskis and dozens of garden party enthusiasts signed up to host their own smaller gatherings and get dressed in their finest party wear and enjoy the local natural beauty.
That’s what the couple did. They haven’t spent much time entertaining this past year, but Carter did pick up gardening as a pandemic hobby so she was showing guests some of her handiwork and a new garden shed built with the help of her father.
North Carolina Azalea Festival announces 2021 Queen
The 2021 Azalea Festival Queen, Princess announced By WECT Staff | March 8, 2021 at 8:03 PM EST - Updated March 8 at 11:52 PM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - The North Carolina Azalea Festival announced Monday the 74th Queen Azalea for the 2021 Azalea Festival is Victoria Huggins.
Huggins, a former WECT employee, was Miss Wilmington 2016, Miss North Carolina 2017, and a former emcee of both the Azalea Children’s Tea and the Azalea Festival Princess Scholarship Pageant.
As a news producer for WECT/WSFX, she worked third shift on “Carolina in the Morning” and as a traffic reporter.
Currently a resident of Vass, N.C., Huggins counts this opportunity as one of the greatest honors of her lifetime. She is now a community and media relations manager of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, a Class A minor league baseball team, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Miss North Carolina organization and the Fayetteville Urban Minist