Following difficult year, Fayetteville Dogwood Festival emerges from clouds

I couldn't believe how many people were out there. It was wild.”

Dogwood Festival board member Andrew Porter

Community support and volunteers helped the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival organization navigate one of its toughest times in the past year and it held a successful 2024 festival this past weekend, two board members said.

And pleasant weather with no rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday helped, too, they said.

“Saturday night was crazy,” festival board member Andrew Porter said. “It was like ‘wow.’ I couldn't believe how many people were out there. It was wild.”

“We had a nice crowd Friday for the Army band,” board member Jackie Tuckey said. “Saturday there was a really good crowd in the park for music. And up and down Hay Street, there were lots of people.”

Food vendors said they did well on Saturday, Tuckey said. “Everybody I saw had a great time, whether they were part of the festival or just visiting.”

The 2024 Fayetteville Dogwood festival drew thousands of people to the promenade near Festival Park in downtown Fayetteville on Saturday, April 27, …

“So overall we were very, very satisfied with what happened with the community coming out,” said board member Andrew Porter. “It was amazing.”

MORE 2024 DOGWOOD FESTIVAL PHOTOS: Seen @ the Scene

Festival faced a crisis

The success of the 2024 Dogwood Festival comes after doubt clouded the future of Fayetteville’s premier downtown event.

Coming into spring, the nonprofit Dogwood Festival organization faced difficult challenges:

• The festival has gone since June without a paid executive director to manage operations, leaving tasks to the unpaid board of directors. Board members handled vendors, found entertainers, arranged for the carnival rides, took care of numerous other logistical items, and pursued sponsors to provide the money needed to hold the event.
• In March, the organization had $42,000 in debt from last year’s festival. As a result, the board cut some attractions from this year’s festival, including free concerts with nationally known musical acts. At one point, it was going to have just one live musical act, a rock music ensemble from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division All-American Band and Chorus at Fort Liberty.
• Two of the festival’s former executive directors, Malia Allen and Carrie King began tangling in a libel lawsuit. Allen published on social media allegations that King had engaged in illegal activity while running the festival. King said the allegations are false.

“While I don’t want to call it this year ‘austerity measures,’” Porter said, “it was more just a, ‘We need to focus in on what the festival is.’ It was a back to basics, getting down to back to the roots of the Dogwood Festival.

“And we did that and it was successful because, from all my senses, I could tell that people really had a great time this year.” he said.

Where do things stand now with the Dogwood Festival?

Last year’s debts are paid off, and this year’s revenues more than covered this year’s costs, Porter and Tuckey said.

“This festival paid for itself, and also will help pay for the next festival,” Porter said. “We’re in a revenue-plus territory. And we hope to remain revenue-neutral or revenue plus.”

The 82nd Airborne Division All-American Rock Band plays a variety of hits during the 42nd annual Dogwood Festival on Friday, April 26, 2024.

These were rock band Set for the Fall, rock band Two Dimensional, and country music singer-songwriter Nicholas Vernon.

Tyler Paul, the head of Christian musical therapy organization Cross to Bear, provided concert production equipment for the bands, Porter said. “We couldn’t have done it without him,” he said.

Singer-songwriter Nicholas Vernon performs at the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

“We thought that because we didn’t have the headliners that we normally have, that there would be less people,” Porter said. “But it turned out to be not true at all.

“Actually, I believe that, with the Latin DJ, I saw folks that I’ve never seen in my life before. We had a huge Hispanic crowd that I’d never seen before. … It was pretty remarkable,” he said.

Other community volunteers helped, too, Porter said. For example, he said, members of the Cape Beard nonprofit organization sent members to assist with the festival operations.

(L) Emmanuel Harrington and Tino Lopez play a game of chess as the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Rock Band plays a variety of hits during the …

This past fall, as concerns emerged about the Dogwood Festival, the Fayetteville City Council arranged for a consultant to evaluate the festival and recommend how it should operate going forward. The findings were made public in March.

Some of the suggestions — including moving it to a new venue and charging admission — generated controversy.

Porter and Tuckey said the festival board is still assessing this year’s festival, and soon will consider how to proceed.

“I think that going forward, we will be mindful of the recommendations that the consultant made,” Tuckey said. “And we will talk to other festivals around the state, and maybe out of the state. And we’re going to work on what the community wants in the future for Dogwood to look like.”

Meanwhile, the N.C. General Assembly may pass a law that would adopt the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival “as the official dogwood festival of the State of North Carolina.” The bill passed the state House 114-0 in April 2023. Notably, the House member who serves Farmville, which has the Farmville Dogwood Festival, voted for the bill.

The bill has been pending in the Senate since then.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.