Southern festivals in full bloom this spring

Now that it finally feels like spring here in Georgia, it’s time to get out and really enjoy the sunshine and warmth that draw so many visitors to our neck of the woods.  We’ve had a long, cold, rainy winter, but fortunately the grey doldrums are dissipating as we southerners break out our white shoes and Easter pastels.

To help celebrate this seasonal awakening, outdoor events are blossoming throughout the region faster than the daffodils and Bradford Pear trees. Atlantans who will be traveling on holiday from school or for Easter should have no problem finding a spring festival within an easy distance of their destination.

Take this weekend, for instance. It’s Easter weekend and many schools are out on break. Events of some sort – from religious services and ecumenical egg hunts to celebrations of nature – are occurring outdoors in just about every town, big or small. Here are a few suggestions for folks heading out of town for the break or to visit family over the holiday.

You can always check community websites for a listing of Easter egg hunts where you will be this weekend. If you’re still looking for a place to go, consider these destinations:

• Head to Adairsville, Ga. to Barnsley Gardens Resort, where guests can color Easter eggs, make bonnets, tour the gardens, attend sunrise church services and of, course, hunt for Easter eggs.  
• Bring your basket to the Naples (Fla.) Botanical Garden on Saturday, April 3 and Easter Sunday to hunt for eggs with the Easter Bunny in the Children’s Garden.  
• Don your swimsuit and goggles to search for underwater Easter eggs at Myrtle Beach’s Canal Street Recreation Center pool Saturday, April 3 at 2 p.m.  If you’d rather collect eggs on dry land, alternatives include hunts at McLean Park in North Myrtle Beach, SC on Saturday at 10 a.m. or the Pawleys Plantation clubhouse on Easter Sunday at 1:30 p.m.       
• If you don’t have tickets to Washington, DC’s famous White House Easter Egg Roll on the beautiful South Lawn, but you can search for eggs on the plush grounds of another grand American “home”, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. 

It’s not an egg hunt, but trains throughout the south are offering lunch, dinner or an afternoon with the Easter Bunny aboard railcars that pass through picturesque springtime scenery. Georgia’s own Blue Ridge Scenic Railway in Blue Ridge is one of many railways offering special Easter trips. Click here for a list of more. 

If bunnies, eggs or sunrise services aren’t what you have in mind for a weekend trip, you can always get away to Savannah’s Music Festival (through Saturday) or Charleston’s 63^rd annual Festival of Houses and Gardens.   

For more of the south’s spring festivals celebrating everything from dogwoods and Vidalia onions to grits and “bears on the square”, click on this AJC list of festivals.  

Do you plan your regional travels around festivals like these? Are you are regular at the agricultural or flower festivals? What attracts you to these small-town events? What are your favorite spring festivals in the south? Do you typically stay overnight in these towns or make the festival a day trip?  

Are you traveling over Easter weekend? What events will you be attending and where?