Festival a success despite tropical storm
Published 5:26 pm Monday, September 5, 2016
JONATHAN ROWE | DAILY NEWS SUNFLOWER CHILD: Katie Hopkins wore a festive sunflower dress to Monday’s festival. Hopkins, a Belhaven resident and Northside High School student, was named Young Miss Sunflower Festival in the festival’s inaugural pageant, held last weekend at Southside High School.
JONATHAN ROWE | DAILY NEWS PERUSING THE FIELDS: Jubilee (left) and Verity Kot, residents of Beaufort, visited the Sunflower Festival with their parents Sunday and enjoyed a stroll through the fields of sunflowers.
JONATHAN ROWE | DAILY NEWS ARRANGEMENTS: Nicole Motovidlak, a New Bern resident, picked an arrangement of sunflowers during the festival to take home. Sunflowers could be picked and purchased for $1 per flower.
JONATHAN ROWE | DAILY NEWS BARNYARD FRIENDS: Sophia Howard and Joanne Howard, both of whom came to the Sunflower Festival from Goldsboro, take a peek at chickens on display.
JONATHAN ROWE | DAILY NEWS FESTIVAL FAVORITE: As is true for most festivals, face-painting was in full swing and enjoyed by many young festivalgoers. Jackson Kuenzi, a Simpson resident visiting the festival, had his face painted as Spiderman by Simone Brown, an artist with Pretty Weird Creations.
The inaugural Sunflower Festival amounted to success despite Labor Day weekend’s inclement weather.
The festival, originally set to kick-off Friday afternoon, was postponed due to Tropical Storm Hermine. Raised in a Barn Farm and supporters of the event were determined, however, to host the festival, which was pushed back to Sunday and Monday.
“We’re very pleased and very blessed from all the people who have come out, considering the fact that the hurricane came,” said Mandie Boahn, farm manager. “It really did a number on us and took out the majority of our flower fields and messed up our ground to the point we didn’t quite have the participation and vendors we would’ve had. We’re just honored and blessed, and we feel amazing about all the people who came out.”
The festival hosted seven musical acts, from Caroline Dare to Skyline to The Eli Craig Band, an array of children’s activities and games and a variety of farm animals available for festivalgoers to see and interact with.
The weather rained out what was supposed to be the Sunflower Parade, scheduled for Saturday, according to Raised in a Barn Farm owner Jane Boahn. Kevin Scott Cutler was set to be the parade’s grand marshall, and a dunking booth was set up as a fundraiser to raise money for Cutler due to a recent cancer diagnosis, Jane Boahn said.
Another component of the festival, also affected by the storm, was the fields of sunflowers. Though they had been planted to perfectly bloom just in time for the festival, most were beaten by the wind and rain of Tropical Storm Hermine, according to Jane Boahn.
Jane Boahn said despite the weather, people from all over the state and beyond, including Connecticut and Florida, came to the event. Jane Boahn said the ultimate goal is to make Chocowinity the sunflower capital of the state, and the Sunflower Festival was designed to launch fall events and activities the farm hosts such as its Six Nights of Fright, a Halloween celebration including a corn maze, haunted trail, live music, games, food and other things.
“We’re excited about the fall season and the events we have coming up,” Mandie Boahn said. “We’re pretty confident that a few warm days will help pull all (the fields) back up. All of that is really exciting for us, and we’re really looking forward to a great fall season.”
A significant event at the Sunflower Festival was its hot air balloon rides — a first-time opportunity in Beaufort County, according to Jane Boahn. Tethered rides on the hot air balloons were postponed to Monday evening, also accounting for the weather.
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