Daffy Over the Years
photography by bill hoenk
The fabled local beginnings of Nantucket Daffodil Festival started a half-century ago when Nantucket seasonal resident Jean MacAusland, the wife of Gourmet Magazine founder Earle MacAusland, spurred an effort to plant cheery daffodils along the island’s roadways. With her fellow members of Nantucket Garden Club back then, the group had organized a daffodil flower show in 1975, which evolved into spreading the bright flower around the island and holding an annual festival. Along the way, Flint and Corky Ranny and Melva Chesrown organized an antique car parade and a community picnic as part of the annual celebration.
Today, the Nantucket Daffodil Festival has inspired similar springtime celebrations across the United States and beyond. But few compare with the regalia associated now with Nantucket’s annual event.
This weekend, visitors and residents can see more than 100 beautifully maintained and festively decorated antique cars on Main Street on Saturday morning. Count on their proud owners and fellow festivalgoers to deck themselves out as colorfully as possible, in outfits ranging from the yachty and preppy, made from bright yellow materials, plaids, and madras cloth, to fascinating and entertaining costumes inspired by movies, literature, and art.
A communal picnic, in eye-arresting tableaus with fabulous foods and drinks, will stretch from Sconset’s Main Street rotary to the outskirts of the village. Partygoers this weekend will spill in and out of the island’s memorable landmarks, restaurants, and homes. For many of us, awakening to the joys of spring with this weekend’s revelers will be hard to resist. And there’s nothing quite like it anywhere.
