Abbeville's Daylily Festival and Garden Show is huge success

Mother Nature was good to the 21st Annual Daylily Festival and Garden Show this past Saturday in Abbeville.
When the festival opened its doors, a cool breeze zipped through Magdalen Square at 8:30 in the morning.
Mother Nature unleashed rain on the few festival goers at around 2:30 p.m.
By then, many of the 45 plant and garden vendors had sold most of their plants.
While the festival opened at 8:30 a.m., plant lovers were lined up by 7:30 a.m., hoping to be the first to land a beautiful plant or daylily before anyone else.
“This festival was one of the best ones,” said Charlene Beckett, who oversees Downtown Main Street in Abbeville. “It was not too hot in the morning. The new and old vendors did well.”
Lynn Guillory, Executive Director of Vermilion Chamber, said, “The Daylily Festival brought in hundreds of garden lovers from all areas of Louisiana! Daylily was a day to bring people together and celebrate the love of gardening! All the hard hours put into the planning of the Daylily Festival is worth it when we get to showcase our community to people visiting us for the first time! These visitors also boost revenue for our local restaurants and hotels. So, this was not only another successful year for the Daylily Festival, but this was also a success for our community!”
Although the daylilies were the featured flower for the festival, different types of gardening was highlighted. The Abbeville Garden Club was located in the Gazebo and was available and answered gardening needs.
In addition, the Abbeville Cultural & Historical Alliance Center had educational speakers throughout the morning.
The Daylily Festival was put on by Abbeville Main Street, the City of Abbeville, and the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Abbeville Cultural Center and Historical.
Alliance and the City of Abbeville. Sponsors are the Abbeville Garden Club and Gulf Coast Bank.
It was impossible to put the number of people who attended the festival, but 500 paper fans were handed out to the crowd that morning.