Moonlighting: Daffodil Festival 2017

Another April has come and (nearly) past, and the daffodils that sprung up so valiantly in our front yard, are sleepily bowing their heads for another year's rest. Which means, we've wrapped up another Spring spent with the Daffodil Festival!

I've written on my love of the Festival and it's frequent space in my writing life before, but beyond the occasional chaperone gig, and regular attendance of major Daffodil events, I've stayed out of its greater operations... until this year. I was not only asked to continue my regular reporting, but also, serve as one of fives judges who decide the Festival Queen from among the pool of 23 Princesses, as well as contribute to a major Daffodil special edition of the Tacoma Weekly with a series of articles, too.

And as if that wasn't enough, the Festival schedule had been revised this year, to concentrate activity in a two-week period with both the Coronation and the Parade, so my pool of time for Daffodil was really a three-week intensive period. Not to mention the fact that all of this was happening at the same time as my family was preparing for a Spring Break trip to Oregon, which was falling in the exact middle of the major Daffodil dates.

Let me break it down for you:

The actual turnaround time was only a few days between each event... I was writing the Daffodil special edition articles the same week I was attending regular judging events, and the day after Coronation, my family left for Oregon, where I had to finish both those articles, as well as my Coronation correspondence, within the first two days of vacation.

That week, in my absence, that special edition and front pager came out, and the morning after we returned to Tacoma, I was out at 9AM with my Mom, cheering on the Festival from the sidewalk of Pacific Ave in Downtown Tacoma. Two days later, my Parade coverage was due to the Weekly, too.

(And two days after that, the primary draft for my portion of the UW Research Team I'm involved with was due, too. You know that saying, about how 'When it rains, it pours' and that saying, 'April showers bring May flowers'? I think we should really just condense that to 'It rains a lot in April - in more ways than one - so bring a poncho and some rain boots and strap in.')

I didn't want my family to stress out on my behalf - especially because at the point where I was starting to feel the crunch, we were only a few days out from embarking on our long-awaited vacation - so I actually didn't tell them what I'd done until that first Weekly issue itself had already come out. The only person who was in on the secret was my amazing baby (ie, fifteen-year-old) brother, who I had caved to in a fit of self-imposed panic, and who dutifully guarded my weird behavior the entire time until everything was published.

But enough about the blood, sweat, and flowers it took to get us here. Here, in the order of their publication, are all of the Daffodil Tacoma Weekly coverage that I contributed to this Festival season: 


from the front page of the Thursday, April 6th edition - Daffodil Festival Crowns Queen Marin Sasaki

from the Daffodil special edition section: 

• Have the Best Parade Day Ever! What to Do and Where to Watch
• Tiara Headache and Slipper Blisters: Princess Problems and Why They're Worth It 
• '09 Princess Gerianne Perez Makes Broadway Debut
• Let's Go to the Library: What Daffodil Princesses Like to Read With Kids
• It's Spring All Over: a Princess-Spotting Guide for the Festival Season
• (my sixth article - an explanation of why this year's Daffodil Queen won't be wearing a white dress - unfortunately didn't make the cut for space restraints!)

from the front page of the Thursday, April 13th edition - Daffodil Festival Grand Floral Parade


And, for the first time in my so-far-brief writing career, I actually received two pieces of fan mail!

The first bit of correspondence was forwarded on to me by the editor of the Weekly who serves as my primary contact, and was a well-written postcard addressed to the publication, containing a few brief paragraphs about why they loved the special issue, and how - going off the bylines - I was the person to thank for it. The second came courtesy of a late-night Facebook message from the vice principal of my middle school, who said she was impressed by the number of articles I wrote.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn by mentioning these things or anything... it was just that, after spending so much time not only generating the concepts and content for those articles, but putting them all together in such a high stress period, as well as not informing anyone around me of what the heck I was doing, it was nice to get that extra bit of kudos.

But, of course, no one could have loved it better than my Festival family. The outpouring of admiration and support I got from them in the wake of my articles running in the Weekly was so unexpected and stupendous, and even friends from other Festivals - like Seattle's Seafair Commodores - made me feel very loved and appreciated through their reactions, too. I am so incredibly blessed to come from such a tight-knit and loving community... they make it so easy to write about our events, because all I'm really doing is bragging about the cool stuff my cool friends are up to! 

Does your hometown have any special traditions or festivals of their own? Let me know, in the comments below!