Prune & Bloom

WITH ALISON BARINGER ENGLISH, CFEE

PANDEMIC 2021: DID YOU PRUNE OR DID YOU BLOOM?

I recently had a Zoom call with the Michigan Festival and Events Association: Michigan Fun, regarding giving a presentation at their annual conference this year. I had been recommended to them by an IFEA friend; I suspect the association itself did not know about the North Carolina Azalea Festival. I filled them in on my role as Executive Director, my history in the events industry, and what the Azalea Festival had been up to during the pandemic. The association representative I was speaking with was wide-eyed and excited the entire conversation. When we were done, he commended me and our Festival for adapting as needed, yet also hosting in-person events in 2021. He knew it had been no small feat and appreciated the dedication to our industry.

I ended that call feeling like a rockstar. We all know how much work planning and orchestrating large-scale events are, but how often do we truly get thanked for the joy and impact it brings to our communities? And especially during times like these?

We had just completed the longest Azalea Festival season in 74 years, we even coined it: the 74th North Carolina Azalea Festival 20-21; Celebrating All Year Long! Our 2020 April Festival dates were canceled at the beginning of Covid; we were only three weeks out from our Festival week, so we rolled all planning and revenues into a new date set in Fall 2020. That got postponed to April 2021 (our next Festival dates) ...but we then made the decision in late Fall 2020 to push our largest fundraiser, the Garden Party (3,000+ attendance) to July 2021, and our Main Stage Concerts and Street Fair and Parade to August, 2021. We knew the Festival and our community needed the economic impact of these large events to be as “normal” and in person as they could be.

But the azaleas only fully bloom in April, and we missed celebrating that Spring beauty so much in 2020. So Festival week in April, 2021 we still went big, but in small doses. Each year we have a Queen Azalea who normally gets crowned at the first event of Festival week. We Re-Presented this into 74 “Mini-Coronations” to celebrate Festival week - we called it Queen Azalea’s 74 Waves! (To coincide with our 74th year). We used this as a way to personally thank many of our top-level sponsors who stuck by us throughout the past year. We visited approximately 15-20 stops over 5 days, each stop lasting only 5-10 minutes where we presented the location with Festival artwork and took professional photographs which we flooded our social media accounts with to stay relevant “Festival week.” Most stops took place outdoors and all stops were mask mandated. We also visited historical landmarks in town, our City and County friends, law enforcement agencies... anything important to the successes of the Festival. That week we also had a Chefs’ Series at local restaurants and introduced a virtual 5K and a Porch Parade.

Our July and August rescheduled live, in-person events were able to happen as well. We had a Garden Party (hottest on record with a 108-heat index), Street Fair, Parade, and three nights of headliner artists (complete with massive, flare-up summer thunderstorms but luckily no major cancellations).

It was a grand time and sometimes it even felt like Festival again. We had reconnected with our Festival family, volunteers, and sponsors...and we all appreciated the connection and togetherness.

It also was not without its obstacles and at times, painfully challenging. I may not be the most tenured industry leader, but I have gone through hosting a full Festival season during a pandemic, and even some of the most tenured experts cannot say this. As such, let me share just a few observations of my time from the front lines:

• Everything is harder.

• Resources are even more limited.

• Your vendor supply/staffing issues are more prevalent and have greater impacts on your event.

• Public criticism is louder and harsher.

• Communication is even more critical and time-consuming.

• People (staff, volunteers, vendors) are tired and losing morale.

The IFEA Covid Task Force I participated in during the summer of 2020 foreshadowed the magnitude of the decision on whether or not to host events during the pandemic. An entire task force was devoted to: RE-PRESENT: The When, Why and How Considerations behind Re-Presenting a Postponed or Cancelled Event. Multiple IFEA CEO phone conferences in 2020 and 2021 focused on this as well. What was everyone doing with their events, and why? Would 2021 see you pruning back your events to virtual or smaller capacities? Cutting them back completely until 2022? Or did you march on with your full events as normally as you could?

We’ve almost made it to the end of 2021, and I still don’t believe there is any one right answer to hosting events during this time. There are so many individual variables that need to be considered, specific to your event and to your region. (Check out that IFEA Task Force findings to see what some of these variables are which you should consider). Pruning may be the best thing for your organization right now. Or maybe, for your community, a bloom is necessary to bring life back.

It’s been a long year and a half for all of us, but for me, I can look back at 2021 and see smiling faces in our photographs (sometimes behind masks!). I can read the words on our social media accounts, thanking us for bringing a favorite band to town. I can remember our Youth Art Contest winners waving proudly from their float in the Parade.

I am proud of our staff for sticking together. I am proud of our community for continuing to support safe events. We have all grown so much through this experience.

An unknown quote says, ““Fate whispers to the warrior, ‘You cannot withstand the storm.’ The warrior whispers back, ‘I am the storm.’” My friends, I fear fate is going to continue to throw waves our way. We need to become the storm if we are to survive.

Alison Baringer English. CFEE is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Azalea Festival. She is a Leadership Wilmington graduate of 2013 and was President of the Junior League of Wilmington in 2014-2015. In 2019, Alison was selected into the inaugural class of the WilmingtonBiz 100, an initiative of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal to recognize the top power players, influencers, innovators, and connectors in the region. The Star News selected Alison as a Top 40 Under 40 business leader in 2020. Alison currently serves on the International Festival and Events Association (IFEA) Foundation Board as Chair-Elect and the UNC-Wilmington Alumni Board on the Executive Committee in the role of Secretary.

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