North Carolina Azalea Festival brings more than $50 million to local businesses
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — With the North Carolina Azalea Festival drawing around 300,000 people to the Cape Fear each year, locally owned businesses are preparing for a busy and successful weekend.
Adrian Rodriguez with Anne Bonny’s Bar and Grill says they’re making sure to fully prepare staff for the weekend, as hungry crowds pack the streets.
“There’s definitely a wait,” said Rodriguez. “We don’t really do anything for the bar, so we get to the point where this whole place is filled with people, you’re kind of fighting through.”
And the crowds won’t stop at Anne Bonny’s. According to a 2011 study, the event brings in more than $50 million over the span of a weekend.
“And that’s been ten years ago,” Wilmington City Councilman Charlie Rivenbark explained, “so with inflation and everything going up, I’d say it’s probably more than that now.”
“And so that’s money that’s coming directly into our hotels, our businesses, our restaurants,” Azalea Festival Executive Director Alison Barringer continued. “All of the people that live and work here, that’s money going directly into their businesses.”
This is the 75th Annual Azalea Festival, the first normal festival in a couple years. With that in mind, Rodriguez believes his business’s income will more than double this weekend.
“It’s one of the things that brings in the most money,” he said. “If we’re not talking fourth of July or any of those really big holidays, Azalea Festival is like, it’s typically just for us, so I know it’s going to be really big and really good for the economy.”
But even as the floats are put away and the city goes from pink to green, Rivenbark says the festival’s impact lingers well into tourist season.
“It does bring in hundreds of thousands of people over the time. It let’s people be exposed to Wilmington and what we have to offer, and a lot of them come back.”
The Azalea Festival’s concerts kick off Wednesday night, followed by the garden party, parade, and street fair later this week.
