VALDOSTA — Valdosta’s premier festival event is returning for its 25th edition.

The Valdosta-Lowndes Azalea Festival will take place March 8-9 at Drexel Park, 1401 N. Patterson St.

The festival will include more than 250 craft vendors, a KidZone, a 5K road race, Frisbee-catching “Disc Connected K9s,” music, an international food court and six stages of entertainment.

One of the stages, sponsored by the Langdale Company, features the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, with log cutting and log rolling competitions, said H. Aaron Strickland, president of the festival’s organizing board.

Another stage will feature a Birds of Prey exhibit, another stage will host the K9s and yet another stage will be a community platform for clogging, dancing and the like, he said.

Lifesouth will also have a bus on hand for blood donations.

The Humane Society of Valdosta / Lowndes County will hold a pet contest,  with same-day registration from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the society’s booth in the KidZone.

Azalea After Dark, with live music and food trucks, will take place from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at 301 E. Central Ave.

The festival was born in 2000 and has settled into a Saturday and Sunday event in mid-March at Drexel Park. 

In 2000, the late Joanne Griner proposed a festival to celebrate Valdosta and its status as the Azalea City. She founded the Valdosta-Lowndes County Azalea Festival and served as its director for several years. She remained deeply involved in the festival until her passing in 2016.

“When I took over in August of 2011, I had the goal of making our festival the largest of its kind within a two- to three-hour radius,” Strickland said in a past interview.

“What began as a small community festival with a single stage and a handful of vendors has grown to a major regional festival that draws vendors and patrons from as far away as New York, Kansas and South Dakota. … Bigger and better is my personal goal,” he said.