Abbeville to host Daylily Festival Saturday

Magdalen Square in downtown Abbeville will be alive with color Saturday morning with the arrival of the 14th Annual Daylily Festival and Garden Show.
The event will kickoff at 8:30 a.m. and will run until 3 p.m. There will not be an opportunity for early bird shopping.
“Gates don’t open until 8:30 a.m. when the church bell rings,” said Abbeville Main Street Manager Charlene Beckett, who helps organize the event.
Once inside, visitors will be able to peruse items offered by more than 40 vendors. While arriving early is certainly the best opportunity to see the best selection, there is plenty available throughout the day.
“They really have plenty of daylily plants,” Beckett said. “They also have a large assortment of other plants. People think they have to rush in at 8:30 a.m., but there are plenty of plants to go around.”
There is also plenty of education to go around. Educational sessions will be conducted at nearby Abbeville City Hall. The first will begin at 9:30 a.m. Dan Devenport, county agent with the LSU AgCenter, will demonstrate how to make color bowls. Keith Hawkins of the LSU AgCenter in Beauregard Parish will lead Beekeeping 101 at 10:30 a.m. Members of the Abbeville Garden Club will provide information on Louisiana Super Plant, as well as educational information for children. The group will be set up at the Gazebo in the Square.
Councilman Brady Broussard, District C, who represents the downtown area, said he is always pleased with what the festival brings.
“It’s a wonderful time of the year when Acadiana’s daylily focus is put on Abbeville and Magdalen Square for the 2015 festival,” Broussard said. “Our area is well known to sustain and promote many varieties of daylilies and it’s exciting to have them on full display Saturday.
“It will be a fun time for all when our downtown becomes more colorful with the vendors of full bloom daylilies and other species.”
Broussard credited those who make it come together.
“It’s a credit not only to the growers of these beautiful daylilies,” Broussard said, “but also our Main Street Program and Abbeville Garden Club along with other volunteers that make this festival possible each year.”
Beckett said she is indeed grateful to all who help make the festival possible.
“To put on a festival like this you definitely have to have partners,” Beckett said. “The (Vermilion) Chamber, the Garden Club and the AgCenter all help make this happen. I tell you that we could not do this without the city workers.
“We certainly appreciate all the people who come out, year after year.”