Burgaw preparing for 21st Annual North Carolina Blueberry Festival

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — We are less than 24 hours from the start of the 21st Annual North Carolina Blueberry Festival in Burgaw.

Organizers are nearly done preparing for the 40 to 50,000 visitors expected between Friday night and Saturday.

To help with all of these visitors, a temporary cell tower has been built to handle calls in the area.

Burgaw Mayor Olivia Dawson said having so many people come out has a positive impact on the region.

“The North Carolina Blueberry Festival brings a lot of visitors and attractions,” Dawson said. “It has a strong economic impact to our, not just Burgaw, but to our county. It’s one of the biggest festivals here in Pender County. It again has a cultural and economic impact to our communities.”

Even though so many people are expected to come, the festival is always looking for new ways to bring people to Burgaw.

Festival board president Doug Krynicki said organizers have worked to make the festival more family and kid-friendly this year.

“We’ve got a whole street dedicated for them,” Krynicki said. “We got more rides for them. We seem to be trying to do more for them and we’ve added some more acts on our kid stage. Every year it grows more and more and we really look forward to that because we don’t want to become stale so we’re constantly changing little stuff around.”

The festival kicks off with live music, a beer garden, and food trucks starting at 7 pm Friday.

It continues Saturday morning with a 5k run at 7 am and the Tour de Blueberry Bike Ride at 8:30 am.

There will also be a street fair, car show, blueberry bake sales and much more.