CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 19 BY MIRIAM LANDRU Every year Fayettevillians look forward to the Dogwood Festival. I know that at CityView we begin anticipating after Christmas about the festival and one of our big questions is always, "Who's playing this year?" We wait for Carrie King's announcement at the Dogwood Media Day. We wonder who the big country acts will be and which longhaired rockers from the 1980s and 1990s will be reliving their glory days on the Festival Park stage. A quick history on the past and present of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival T his year we have young new- comer Mo Pitney who has played the Grand Ole Opry stage and top 10 country crooner Craig Campbell on Friday night and glam rock headbangers Quiet Riot and Warrant on Saturday. As a newcomer (still) to Fayetteville, I did think to myself one day at my desk, How did the Dogwood Festival come to fruition? Who started it? Why? And to answer that question, I was pointed in the direction of former Mayor Bill Hurley. "In 1982, the city was beautiful and we were looking for ways to promote Fayetteville," explained Hurley. Wilm- ington's Azalea Festival was popular, so the All-America city's leaders were looking for ways to show off as well. But forget the azalea flowers, Fayetteville's dogwoods heralded much more "bite" as the gorgeous arbors are prevalent around the city and county. e first Dogwood Festival took a lit- tle less than a year to plan. Many dif- ferent garden clubs, charities and other organizations held their annual events during the first Dogwood Festival, which was a weeklong extravaganza in 1983. Famed comedian Red Skelton was the first celebrity to grace the Dogwood Festival and he was most gracious in the fact that he signed, " what must have been over 1,000 autographs" according to Hurley. And of course, being a comedian, feature Red Skelton at the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, 1983 THE Founding OF THE Festival

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