GLOUCESTER, Va. - The Gloucester Daffodil Festival will return in 2022, and registration for some of the event's activities is already beginning.
The festival will be held April 2 and April 3, 2022, and its theme will be "In Full Bloom," celebrating both the festival's full return and its history. It will feature a juried art show, vendors, a daffodil show, the Little Miss Daffodil Contest and a parade, as well as several ways to look back at the event's history.
According to a release from the Gloucester Department of Community Engagement and Public Information, to honor the festival's roots, organizers plan to recreate a photo taken for the 1942 National Geographic article highlighting the festival. The Daffodil Festival began as Daffodil Tours in Gloucester and Mathews counties between 1939 and 1942, and the National Geographic photo connected how the tours began and one of the themes used, back to Holland.
While the main festival was canceled the past two years, in 2021 they had what they called “A Little Gem," with only 40 vendors, no entertainment, no food court or parade.
Festival organizers are also searching for descendants of the first three Daffodil Tour Queens: Delta Osborne in 1939, Harriet Miller in 1940 and Mary Tyler Chadwick in 1941. If anyone is related to any of these past three Queens, they are encouraged to contact Debbie Wesolowski, the festival's coordinator, by phone at 804-693-2355 or email at dwesolowski@gloucesterva.info.
