COURTESY NANTUCKET CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/MICHAEL GALVIN
The antique car parade is a highlight of the Nantucket Daffodil Festival.
NANTUCKET – The largest celebration of the sunny yellow flower in the region is on Nantucket this weekend, April 24 to 26.
The Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce’s annual Daffodil Festival, a weekend of events to celebrate springtime awakening on Nantucket Island began as a very simple affair in the 1970s. In the early years, it included an antique car parade in which islanders showed off their classic cars, followed by a community tailgate picnic in ‘Sconset.
According to the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce history of the event, it was 1974 when the late Jean MacAusland, a former summer resident and publisher of Gourmet Magazine, encouraged the Nantucket Garden Club to invite the American Daffodil Society to sponsor and on-island daffodil show.
The first official event was held in 1975, a special sale of paintings by local artist Sybil Goldsmith and fellow artists helped to defray costs affiliated with the show and plantings of daffodil bulbs in public areas.
COURTESY NANTUCKET CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/MICHAEL GALVIN
Event the dogs are dressed up for Daffodil Festival.
Mrs. MacAusland donated thousands of bulbs and the community assisted in the plantings of daffodil bulbs in public areas, planting an incredible one million plus bulbs across the island.
Since many bulbs were planted too close to the road, they were unable to survive the town’s annual roadside mowing. As a result, the Garden Club initiated “drift playing” with greater success, setting the bulbs out in random bunches farther from the road, protecting them and insuring a more natural setting.
In 1978, Mrs. MacAusland along with islander Flint Ranney orchestrated the first classic car parade and tailgate picnic to create a weekend-long event.
The first Annual Nantucket Garden Club Vintage Motor Car Outing made its debut.
Nineteen antique vehicles were registered in the first parade, including Mrs. MacAusland’s own 1966 Van Dan Plas Rolls Royce and Ranney’s iconic 1927 American LaFrance ladder truck.
COURTESY NANTUCKET CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/MICHAEL GALVIN
The party in ‘Sconset is a competition for most elaborate tailgate.
Now, more than three decades later, the Daffodil Festival on Nantucket includes art shows, tours, parades (including the antique car parade and tailgate picnic), exhibitions, contests, lectures, and, of course, the annual Nantucket Daffodil Flower Show. There are activities for all ages, and faithful festival-goers dress up for the occasion and participate enthusiastically. There is a Daffy Hat Contest, a Children’s Parade featuring decorated bikes, strollers, wagons, and other self-propelled vehicles. The Pine Woods Morris Dancers often perform throughout the day at various locations.
The tailgate picnic in Siasconset that follows the Antique Car Parade is a favorite among everyone who attends this Nantucket festival. Picnics can be elaborately staged or simple and casual.
Additional special Daffodil Festival weekend events for 2015 include Daffodil Festival brunches, parades, and a Daffodil 5k on Sunday morning, April 26, hosted by the Nantucket Triathlon Club.
CCB MEDIA PHOTO
P. J. Martin-Smith, Executive Director of the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce
The 41st Annual Nantucket Community Daffodil Flower Show, sponsored by the Nantucket Garden Club and approved by The American Daffodil Society, will be held on Saturday, April 25 from 2 to 5 p.m. and Sunday, April 26 from 10 am to 4:30 p.m. at Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm, 33 Bartlett Farm Road.
On Saturday, April 25 only there will be free shuttle buses to the show from Washington Street across from The Greenhound building starting at 1:45 p.m. and continuing all afternoon. The last bus will return from the farm at 5 p.m. Admission to the flower show is free, but donations will be accepted toward the Garden Club’s Daffodil Planting Fund.
The artistic theme for this year’s show is “Found on Nantucket” chaired by Susan Balling and Bee Gonnella. In addition to the flower arrangements and daffodil horticulture sections of the show, there will be a special section for Photography entries of daffodils in a landscape, a garden setting, a flower arrangement or a natural or unusual setting.
Listen below to P.J. Martin, Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, discuss the Nantucket Daffodil Festival.
