LELAND, N.C. (WECT) - An annual festival celebrating the Cape Fear region’s history of rice farming is starting next week in Leland.
The North Carolina Rice Festival will be held on March 8 after several events leading up to the festival. Starting on March 5, organizers will hold the ‘Introducing…The NC Rice Festival event’ for newcomers in the area to understand the role of rice in Gullah Geechee culture.
Following the introduction, an ancestry reveal event will be held on March 6, and a dedication of the Reaves Chapel on March 7, a religious center and hub for the Gullah Geechee communities in the late 1800s.
The North Carolina Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Gala will be held at the Leland Cultural Arts Center on March 7.
The lineup concludes with the all-day Rice Festival at the historic Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson site.
“Surrounded by some of the County’s largest former rice plantations, this venue offers an excellent site for festivities and reflection on the Rice Festival’s dual themes,” organizers wrote on the North Carolina Rice Festival website.
Participants can engage in the Gullah Geechee Community Riverwalk Processional as well as watch live performances and presentations from Daniel Jones, the cultural curator at Wilmington’s Cameron Art Museum, last year’s headliners Shea Ra Nichi and The Cultural Ensemble, and more.
To learn more about the festival’s itinerary, visit the festival’s website here. For more information, you can email the organizers here.
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