The 13th Annual Dazzling Dahlia Festival was a success over the weekend. The Bascom Center for Visual Arts kicked things off with a poster party that featured signature dahlia cocktails and the poster artist Megan Gaillour on Thursday night.
Saturday was a never ending surprise of color, design, stunning dahlias, history, art, and great music. A total of 52 very vignettes were set up all over town. There was a dahlia salamander, a dahlia sandwich, dahlia dresses, dahlia waterfalls, mountains, and dahlia vineyards. It rained dahlias, children did dahlia art, there were dahlia paintings, and of course dahlia bears.
The festival’s theme, “Seasons of Highlands” was represented 52 different ways through flowers. The judges struggled to make their choices, but in the end the Best of Show judges award went to The Church of the Incarnation and their “Four Seasons of Learning” designed by Stephanie Reeves. They won $500 for their creativity.
Second place went to Anna Wear, third place to Secret Garden by Christy Curcuru, and two Honorable Mentions went to Full House Gallery by Susan Nastasic, Vevie Dimmitt and Maggie Douglas, and Oakleaf by Kirk Moore.
The People’s Choice awards were decided by about 1000 online votes. Best of Show People’s Choice was Fern of Highlands by Justyne Reese of R & R Farms. Second place was Secret Garden by Christy Curcuru, third place The Vineyard at High Holly, by Sharon Duke and two Honorable Mentions were Lulu BLEU by Sally Zangger, and Incarnation by Stephanie Reeves.
Then there was the single bloom competition at The Bascom, which was almost twice as large as it has ever been. There were 43 growers who entered, plus four professional growers. A total of 403 dahlias were entered, so many that organizers ran out of bottles and had to find more. The flowers were mesmerizing in every color (except blue), sizes ranged from golf ball to dinner plate, and there was even a sugar dahlia in the mix. Many, many ribbons were awarded and are available at the Historical Society Museum.
Best of Show in amateur Single Bloom went to Mary Dotson for her perfect Formal Decorative. Professional Best of Show went to Tim Wheatley for his Formal Decorative, MD’s Salamander.
Meanwhile the historical museum was bursting with Lee Lyons, Cynthia Strain and Randy Lucas sharing their talents and stories of Highlands. Then the Chuck Nation band entertained while Harry McDonald served bbq sandwiches. Gary Wein shared his “Sense of Place” talk with interested folks, and then Charles Wood and Nitrograss made a big finish.
An exciting day wrapped up when Visit Highlands and the Dahliabolicals presented the fabulous dance band “Steel Toe Stiletto” for a concert in Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park. It was a three hour dance party with lighting and fog effects that left few people in their seats.
Mark your calendars for Sept. 7, 2024, “Flower Power” will be the theme for next year’s dazzling dahlia festival.