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Not even COVID-19 could derail plans for the Azalea Storytelling Festival’s 25th anniversary.

Last year, with COVID a much bigger threat (vaccines were still fairly new at that time), the festival held a smaller scale performance and dubbed it festival 24.5. It was only fitting to do it that way, so that the 25th festival wasn’t derailed.

The festival is returning this year with storytellers Carol Cain, Donald Davis, Josh Goforth, Kevin Kling and Ed Stivender on March 4-6 at the LaGrange College Callaway Auditorium.

This festival has brought in people from around the Southeast, and it continues to grow. It started as the dream of three LaGrange women — Pat Gay, Public Relations/Children’s Librarian and storyteller at LaGrange Memorial Library; Evelyn Jordan, Chairman of the LaGrange College Education Department; and Joyce Morgan-Young, assistant superintendent with the Troup County School System. 

The first festival was in March 1997, with Davis — a regular at the festival over the years — taking part.

That first festival was probably a little scary — a step into the unknown — but now the festival has grown majorly. Rather than just one weekend a year, there’s now A Taste of Storytelling, Stories in the Garden and much more.

Tickets are on sale for this year’s festival, and we encourage you to attend. The 25th anniversary only comes around once. The link to purchase tickets is available at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=133846.