Скачать или смотреть All About The 77th North Carolina Azalea Festival With Andrew Nettleman and Allison Baringer

The Connect Cape Fear Podcast host, Rob Rens, interviews Andrew Nettleman, President, and Allison Baringer, Executive Director, with the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC

About the Azalea Festival
Going on year 77, the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina is back! Lots of returning events with some new additions to Wilmington's event-of-the-year. The 2024 Azalea Festival will continue its' famous events such as the Scholarship Princess Pageant, the Concert Series featuring T-Pain and Chase Rice, the Azalea Festival Parade, and more. The newest addition to the Azalea Festival is the Battleship Boom and Bloom Fireworks Bonanza, a showing of fireworks on the Battleship. New events throughout the year include cornhole and volleyball tournaments at Capt'n Bill's in June and a golf tournament at River Landing in October.

About Andrew Nettleman, President of the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC
Andrew, originally from Upstate New York, first got involved with the Azalea Festival when he was 6 years old as a volunteer with his mom. Over the years, Andrew touches on how much the Azalea Festival has grown. The number of days has grown from around a day and a half when he was a kid to now reaching almost a week long full of festivities. Andrew shares how it originally started as an "economic engine" for the area and has now become one of the biggest festivals in North Carolina and has even been nationally recognized.

About Allison Baringer, Executive Director of the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC
Allison came to Wilmington from Ohio in the early 2000's when she became a student at UNCW. Upon graduation in 2004, Allison applied and got the job working for the Azalea Festival and has been there ever since. Allison's role with the Azalea festival is not only to help organize the events and work with the board and volunteers, but her job also consists of getting the Wilmington community participating in some fashion. Allison says how one of her favorite things to come of the event is how much community involvement there is and how many people are willing to lend a hand to help the Azalea Festival take off each year.

About the Azalea Festival and Community
One of the great things about the Azalea Festival is that each year they partner with local nonprofit organizations to help benefit their causes as well. This year they have a pet photo contest with all the proceeds benefitting Paws4People. They are also partnering with the Wilmington Battleship for their firework show. Both Andrew and Allison touch on the need for people in the Wilmington community to join them in volunteering. Every year they have over 1,000 volunteers to which Andrew adds, "the event could not happen every year without them."

In the podcast, Andrew and Allison state that various portions of the event are close to selling out, so buying your tickets sooner rather than later is a must!

They are still looking for volunteers! To sign up for volunteering at the Azalea Festival, click here: https://ncazaleafestival.org/volunteer/

For more information and to see all of the events happening this year at the Azalea Festival:
https://ncazaleafestival.org

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