PICKENS - By Saturday morning, the storm clouds that cancelled Friday’s events had cleared, and the streets of downtown Pickens were flooded with visitors for the 29th annual Azalea Festival.
The shortened event featured arts and crafts, vendors, amusement rides, helicopter rides, and live music.
“We had to cancel Friday’s events due to the severe weather in the area,” said Russ Gant, Azalea Festival director. “But I expect that 20,000 or better showed up Saturday to see the arts and crafts, the helicopter rides, amusement rides and entertainment on the main and west end stages.”
Channel 7 out of Spartanburg was this year’s title sponsor.
“Because this is a non-ticketed event, we conducted surveys from the general public and vendors throughout the festival to determine the attendance, and we hope to have those results available in a couple of weeks,” Gant said.



















