The city’s calling card is on the way.
It’s the marquee event.
It’s the annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival that is scheduled to stage its 41st spring rite in April at Festival Plaza Park and the side streets downtown.
“We are just so glad that you came to celebrate us,” Sarahgrace Snipes Mitchell, executive director of the festival, was saying Wednesday evening before about 80 sponsors, media representatives and guests at the Aevex Veterans Club at Segra Stadium.
Entertainment headliners are country music artists Ashland Craft and David Nail on April 28, rock bands LIT and Buckcherry on April 29, and “Who’s Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience” on April 30.
“It’s a great lineup,” Mitchell, 24, later said.
A preamble to the festival is “The Cork and Fork: A Premier Food and Wine Event,” which is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. April 27 at the park. Tickets are $75 for couples and $40 for individuals. A silent auction will benefit the festival’s nonprofit partner, Fayetteville Urban Ministry.
Otherwise, all entertainment acts will be performed at no charge to festivalgoers.
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‘Very diverse’
Now, about the entertainment.
Mayor Mitch Colvin and the City Council put Mitchell through the proverbial wringer in June of 2022 about bringing a greater diversity of musical acts to the festival, and council members including Shakeyla Ingram were all but overbearing.
Some of us have a long memory, and the camera’s eye never blinks, either.
“I’ve been on council since 2013, and I know some of the concerns raised in the past and others have raised with the diversity of the entertainment,” Colvin told Mitchell when she went before the council asking for $15,000 to support paying for festival vendors. “What are you doing to speak to the diversity of the community with your lineup?”
Ingram, along with Courtney Banks-McLaughlin and then-Councilman Larry Wright,
share the mayor’s concerns.
“We want to speak to this entire city and its makeup,” Ingram told Mitchell.
The city did allocate $15,000 for the festival that, according to Mitchell, costs a total of about $300,000.
This year’s festival will be diverse enough with country, rock and the Michael Jackson tribute performance, according to Mitchell, thanks to the suggestion of board member John Nielsen.
“I think it’s very diverse,” said Tara Long, 44, chairwoman of the festival board of directors.
You’ll never go wrong with country with performers such as Ashland Craft and David Nail. Grunge rock is not for me, but LIT and Buckcherry will serve the heavy-metal music fans, and a Michael Jackson tribute brings out everybody.
‘Something for everybody’
More than 215,000 attended the 2022 festival, according to Mitchell, and Mitchell is hoping for more this year.
“It’s always the game plan,” Mitchell said.
There’s always something for everybody at the festival that began in 1982 under the vision of the late Jimmy Little, the late Mayor Bill Hurley and businessman John Malzone. The festival has evolved into a spring destination for all ages — young, old and ages in between.
You’ll see folks including youngsters atop a father’s shoulders, mothers pushing baby strollers and all of them enjoying the festival trappings and making stops for burgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, nachos, candy apples and the cotton candy.
“Everybody knows about it,” said Long, whose fellow board members include Jesse Baker, Jamie Ammons, John Nielsen, Antonio Renteria, Johnny Chavis, Ebony Warfield-Graham, Jackie Tuckey, Patricia Winstead, Felita Gilliam, Andrew Porter, Darrell Purcell, Randy Scott and Vivian Scott. “It’s been here for 41 years and as long as I’ve been alive. It’s a great family-fun event. And where else can you take your family for free?”
Epilogue
It’s the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival.
It’s the marquee event for the city, and one of the more popular festivals in southeastern North Carolina.
“The Dogwood Festival is part of our heritage,” City Councilwoman Kathy Keefe Jensen told Mitchell in June. “A part of what we do.”
BTW, not a single City Council member turned out for Wednesday’s unveiling of the 2023 Fayetteville Dogwood Festival lineup, including the mayor.
Some of us have a long memory.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
