Whimsical blossom displays and blooming flower constructions covered the grounds at Pointe-Marie Village Center District from Saturday to Sunday as part of Baton Rouge’s fourth annual Flower Fest.
This floral celebration is part of a three-day long fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a hospital that provides treatment to children with catastrophic diseases at no cost to their families.
The Flower Fest began Friday with a gala presenting the 2024 Honorees, who each held personal fundraisers to raise money for St. Jude. Attendees at the gala got to bid in a live and silent auction and preview the 12-foot floral installations that appeared at the festival over the weekend.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the festival was open to the public and offered a variety of activities and attractions from pop-up markets to food vendors and crafts stations. Participants could buy handmade flower crowns, listen to live music and admire the many artistic floral creations spread out across the grounds.
Rachel Ransom, the public relations chair for the Flower Fest in 2023 and 2024, said that in just the two years that she has worked for the festival, she has seen it grow quickly.
Ransom said that the number of people reaching out to support the event has grown, and people are increasingly looking to get involved. “So you will see that there are not only way more attendees, but more vendors that want to go because they also want to support the local community,” she said, “They want to support the local kids who are struggling with cancer.”
A portion of all the proceeds generated at the festival were donated to St. Jude. For vendors, a minimum of 20% of each purchase was donated. For some booths, every dollar went to the cause.
Time Warp Vintage Boutique, a clothing store in Baton Rouge, had a pop-up shop featuring unique, vintage floral dresses and other accessories. Jessica Rogers, the store manager at Time Warp, said the boutique reached out to become a vendor after their employees attended the festival for fun in 2023, and saw an opportunity to give back to the community.
“We love doing events where we can give back, especially when donations are involved, so that was really the drive for us to do it,” Rogers said.
The festival also featured four large floral installations created by four florists from around the country. The theme for this year’s installations was “Once Upon a Dream,” and the florists were given thousands of flowers and other resources needed to bring their visions to life. Festival attendees got to vote on their favorite installation during the weekend.
David Parker, one of the four competing florists, created the installation “Ugly Duckling,” which featured plants and flowers resembling a Japanese zen garden and a large swan sniffing a rose. Parker is a cancer survivor, and the encouragement he felt from the people involved with the festival made him alter his design.
“Twenty years ago next month, I was diagnosed with malignant cancer,” Parker said. “And coming out here and seeing the support, the community, the volunteers, I just really had a sense of calm and a sense of peace knowing all the comfort that we’re bringing to the children who are at St. Jude. So it really helped me pivot my design to a more zen garden to reflect that peace that I was feeling.”
Parker owns Stems Boutique Florist in St. Francisville, Louisiana. He and the other florists attended the gala on Friday as well. Parker said despite the competition, he and the other florists worked together to help each other throughout the process.
“It was amazing just to feel from the crowd, the sponsors and the organizers the love and the appreciation for our floral art,” Parker said. “And the florists, we really bonded. It is a floral competition, but we came together. We call it a floral collaboration because we helped each other along the way, and that’s what florists do.”
Parker used to be a social worker before he became a florist. Even in this different career, he still tries to provide comfort to people.
“Instead of the technicalities of medicine, now I’m dealing with the joy of flowers, but it all ties into social work,” Parker said. “I’m taking care of people in different ways now.”
Last year, the Flower Fest raised over $147,000 for St. Jude, and this year they are hoping to raise over $200,000. Parker thinks that pairing a charity like St. Jude with a festival all about flowers is a wise decision.
“It was very important to me to give back to the community, and there’s no better way to do it than the joy of flowers,” Parker said. “There is no worthier cause than St. Jude Children’s Hospital.”
