Volunteers ‘sweep’ ahead of 77th annual North Carolina Azalea Festival
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)– Preparations for the Azalea Festival next week are well underway in the Port City.
Festival organizers held the annual Azalea Sweep on Saturday.
The decades-old tradition sees volunteers picking up trash at the places where the Azelea Queen will visit during her reign.
Azalea Festival President, Andrew Nettleman, says although the tradition started to honor the reigning queen, it’s evolved to serve the thousands of visitors the port city will see in the coming week.
“We’re going to have a street fair and parade next week. We’re going to bring about a quarter of a million people to downtown Wilmington. So, we just want downtown to look its best for all our visitors,” said Nettleman.
The Azalea Festival will kick off with the queen’s coronation at the battleship at 3 pm on Wednesday. Festival events will run until Sunday next week.
