Why Nantucket’s Daffodil Festival Should be on Your Radar for 2021

Late April is the time to go to the New England island of Nantucket, when more than 3 million daffodils paint the town and roadsides in shades of yellow and white. April weather is warm enough for picnics and everyone celebrates the arrival of spring at the annual Nantucket Daffodil Festival.

This year’s 46^th annual festival may be postponed, but plans to reschedule are in the works. Events are planned all over town, but the primary event is the antique car parade, when more than 100 antique and vintage vehicles, appropriately bedecked with daffodils, drive through the streets. Nantucket saw its heyday in the mid-19th century and the buildings along its streets are almost all veterans of the town’s glory years.

The cars are decked out in daffodils and drivers and passengers wear costumes — some representing the period of the car and others in imaginative outfits. Kids who don’t care about the cars will love the bright costumes. The cars continue out of town to ‘Sconset, toward a gigantic Tailgate Picnic.

A daffodil picnic at Cog Railway, Nantucket. Photo: Stillman Rogers

The Daffodil Festival Children’s Parade displays daffodil-decorated doll and baby carriages, bicycles, tricycles, wagons, strollers, scooters, even skateboards, gathered at Children’s Beach bandstand, Harbor View Way. Riders and drivers are costumed (bicycle riders must wear helmets, which can become fanciful hats). Children under 10 should be accompanied by an adult.

Later, the Daffodil Festival Hat Pageant gets underway, with a parade of decorated, daffodil-themed hats that range from stylish and elegant to fanciful and  goofy. Kids, men, everyone is welcome and prize ribbons are awarded to adults and children. This is also held at the Children’s Beach bandstand.

Families can gather at Children’s Beach for a show by Lizza Obremski’s Nanpuppets, a group of engaging handmade hand puppets. The puppets and the show are designed to entertain and encourage imagination, while teaching about music and facts about Nantucket island and the creatures that live there.

All ages love the Daffy Dog Parade, where leashed dogs dressed in costumes promenade at Children’s Beach to benefit Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals. All entries are welcome.

Nantucket Harbor. Photo: Stillman Rogers

Getting to Nantucket is easy, either by ferry or by air from New York or from Boston, New Bedford or Hyannis in Massachusetts. Ferries depart regularly from both Hyannis and Falmouth, on Cape Cod. While you can take a car on the ferry, you will find it easy to get around the island by bicycle or on foot. And if you’re going for the Daffodil Festival, you’ll discover ferry spaces have been booked far in advance by owners of antique cars arriving for the parade. Bring your own bikes on the ferry or rent them once you arrive.

Events vary by year, stay tuned to the event website for updates.