GLOUCESTER — The Gloucester Daffodil Festival is set to fully return in the spring of 2022.
The popular event was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and was scaled back for 2021.
According to Festival Coordinator Debbie Wesolowski, the festival’s theme will be, “In Full Bloom,” as a way to celebrate both the event’s full return and its history.
Registration has already opened for various activities in the 2022 festival, which is planned for April 2-3, 2022.
In honor of the history of the festival, organizers are looking back to the Daffodil Tours that took place in 1939-1942 in Gloucester and Mathews counties.
Organizers are looking to recreate a photo taken for the 1942 National Geographic
article that highlighted the festival, which shows around thirty women in Dutch hats picking daffodils.
To re-create the moment, the festival will offer a one-time sponsorship opportunity to smaller local businesses that have not yet had the opportunity to be a sponsor.
Wesolowski said she is 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.
Anyone who is related to these three queens are encouraged to contact Wesolowski at (804) 693-2355 or dwesolowski@gloucesterva.info.
Additionally, the festival is inviting girls from Gloucester County ages six to ten to enter the Little Miss Daffodil Contest. Entry forms will be available on the festival website beginning in February 2022.
Local artists are also invited to enter the juried art show for the official 2022 Daffodil Festival Print.
To fill out an application or for updates on the Daffodil Festival, information about sponsorship opportunities, vendor applications, the Daffodil Festival Print, Parade, Queen applications, scholarship applications and more, visit the festival website.