Azalea Festival Queen’s Coronation moving indoors

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The threat of bad weather is forcing a change for the start of the 70th North Carolina Azalea Festival.

Because of the threat of rain and thunderstorms, the festival is moving the Queen’s Coronation to the Hilton Wilmington Riverside downtown instead of Greenfield Lake Amphitheater as originally planned.

The event starts at 3 p.m. That’s when Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev will be crowned Queen Azalea. You can watch it live here on WWAYTV3.com, or you can watch a replay at 4 p.m. on WWAY ABC.

It’s the first time the coronation has been moved indoors since 2014, when the festival crowned Kirsten Haglund, who was Miss American 2008, inside the Convention Center instead of on the facility’s lawn because of the threat of rain.

It’s the first time the coronation has been moved to the Hilton since 2009, when actress Amrapali Ambegaokar was the queen.