From Princess to President
Liz Carroll on her new role as Azalea Festival board president
LIZ CARROLL brings a lot to the table in her position as this year’s Azalea Festival board president, not the least of which is her signature “hip traditional” approach that she honed at her Wilmington interior design business, Liz Carroll Interiors.
The former Azalea Belle and Azalea Pageant Princess loves putting a modern spin on tradition with not just her design work, but also with festival events.
“My style and brand permeates everything I do,” she says.
Attendees of the Azalea Festival, which started in 1948 with Hugh Morton as its first president, may notice Carroll’s handiwork in the festivities this year with some new twists on the time-honored events.
One of the most prominent changes is the rerouting of the festival’s parade route. This year’s route, rather than starting on the north side of town and winding through downtown, will start at Market and Third streets and go straight down Third. Carroll says the hope is that this will help to eliminate some of the gaps in the procession that occurred in past years’ festivals.
The new route also avoids some of downtown’s lower-hanging power lines, which allows for the addition of large, inflatable balloons to the parade.
“Those are the kinds of things that will make a huge visual impact,” Carroll says of the balloons. “I’m a very visual person because of my work … I can definitely see kids getting very excited to see these coming down the street.”
The festival is also utilizing new methods to promote events. In past years, the festival’s big concert announcement was done through a formal press conference and press release. This year, however, Carroll held a party at her home for members of the media where an announcement was made that Grammy-winning artist Nelly would be the festival’s Friday night headliner (see Azalea Festival calendar of events, page 21).
The news was also distributed via the festival’s social media pages.
“It was really fun to watch that night and see the different media outlets picking it up and retweeting it,” Carroll says.
Her passion for the festival began in high school when she was able to experience the behind-the-scenes excitement of the events as an Azalea Belle. Two years later, she entered and won the Azalea Festival Princess Pageant and became a year-round representative for the festival as part of her duties.
“I think the thing that made a big impression on me was not the crown; it was not the dress; it was not being the princess. It was the experiences you have in that role,” she says.
“As a seventeen-year-old high school senior, I was handed the microphone and asked to go on the floor of the North Carolina Senate and address our senators on behalf of the Azalea Festival. There are not many teenagers that get a chance to do that.”
Carroll took the experiences she had as the Azalea Princess with her to college and beyond. She attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduated with a degree in business, and went to work for Bank of America for eight years in human resources. Her job with the bank required her to travel two out of every four weeks, which was tough with a one-year-old at home, so she left her position and took a few months off before deciding to launch her own business.
“I got my entire house organized, top to bottom,” Carroll recalls with a laugh. “The attic was cleaned out, spices organized and alphabetized. I think I’m one of those people that just needs to stay busy.”
She intentionally grew her business slowly, making sure she had her systems, processes, and vendors in place before expanding and taking on more clients. Carroll’s work has been featured in numerous local and national magazines, and, although she does not travel like she used to, her design work does take her out of Wilmington occasionally. She has clients as far north as New Jersey, south to Charleston, and west to High Point.
With a thriving business to run and kids aged seven, four, and one to care for, it does not seem as if Carroll would have much time for anything else, but she still manages to squeeze in her work for the Azalea Festival.
Despite the time commitment, which in the months and weeks leading up the event is quite substantial, Carroll is passionate about the work she does.
“What I did in high school,” she says, “made such an impression that I wanted to give back to this festival that has given so much to me.”
Face on the Rise
After spending the past decade learning the ins and outs of the Azalea Festival, ALISON BARINGER heads up her first event this year as executive director.
Festival officials announced in January that Baringer was promoted to the leadership position.
A graduate of University of North Carolina Wilmington, Baringer first joined the festival’s planning staff in 2005 as office manager and later worked as festival coordinator.
As executive director she coordinates with more than 120 people to help plan and pull off the long list of festival-related events.
In recent years with the organization, Baringer played a role in helping usher in a number of changes including moving the concert venue to an outdoor space downtown, transitioning to an online ticketing system, incorporating social media, and completing an economic impact study of the festival’s activities.
“The North Carolina Azalea Festival is such a large part of our community’s history and culture,” she says. “I have seen this festival grow exponentially in the ten years I have been fortunate to be a part of the festival family and am excited to see how much further we can take it.”
Click here to see the Azalea Festival event calendar.
To view more of photographer Megan Deitz’s work, go to www.megandeitz.com
