We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Vandiver a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The Flower Fest is so meaningful because it brings together not only florists, but balloon artists, tattoo artists, makers, and craftsman all for a good cause. We are all allowed to stretch creatively and with new themes every year even returning creative artists aren’t bored. The cause is near to my heart because there are currently 900 children from our state receiving cancer treatment at St. Jude. Out of something so ugly we grew this festival to bring hope and beauty to our state for these kids.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I stumbled into what I am doing with The Flower Fest. After yet another night of binging Netflix during the pandemic, I became fascinated by The Big Flower Fight, a reality television show in which florists compete by creating larger-than-life sculptures out of blooms. I have always been creative, my mom put a paint brush in my hand as soon as I could hold a fork! But I had become honestly a little bored with branding and digital marketing. I had been running a creative agency for years and had never really planned any events, let alone a festival. However my gut or maybe my cabin fever said go for it.

I thought it would be an excellent idea for an outdoor festival in my city to help struggling florists and allow people to gather outdoors during the end of the pandemic. My thinking was Louisiana has plenty of festivals focusing around food and music, why not one that showcases the talents of another breed of creatives-florists!

So in 2021 with the help of a few friends and floral experts we threw together the first festival and thousands came. It was truly mind blowing. We get it that we were the only ticket in town as our festival was opening weekend of outdoor events being permitted-but our hearts knew it was special regardless.

Now heading into year 4, I no longer have my creative agency, because I wanted my creative energy to go into this project. I am not the Creative Services Director at a thriving media company but after hours I am researched brand activations, combing over floral fashion concepts, and planning with a team now of 15 volunteers for our next festival in just a few weeks.

Year after year we have doubled in our giving to St. Jude as well and beyond the beauty of all of this I have to focus on the actual impact. We want to be memorable and exciting but actually support the needs of St. Jude. What they do for these families and children is the true awe inspiring act-our week of blood, sweat, and tears is nothing compared to what these kids go through. Honestly that is what motivates the entire team. Florists give up a weekend during prime time wedding season here to volunteer and build these insane installations and each year we just keep seeing them get more and more creative.

When I entered into my 30’s I truly was looking for my creative passion and now at 37 i believe I have found it. We continue to bring in more creatives-this year will be our first to offer real tattoos at the festival and we love seeing the different artists ask to join in on the fun.

Our biggest future goal is to make this a festival weekend that people come from all across the country to see. We have had guests from as far as Canada, but our ten year plan is to bring in florists from all 50 states. This year we have a florist coming all the way from California to create an install! We are beyond excited to see where this festival goes.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I have learned is to take your timeline and crumple it up. Having goals and hopes is perfect but sometimes the rigid expectations we put on ourselves actually puts us in a box. I had no idea at 25 I would own my own business before I was 30. At 30 I had no idea I would be getting a divorce while launching this never been done before non-profit festival. And now at 37 I had no clue I would have closed my company last year to slow down, soak up my kids more and have only one true creative outlet-The Flower Fest. The destination can’t be the only focus, getting there and adapting to changes is so important as a creative.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of what I do are the relationships. I have core friends now that I didn’t even know 4 years ago who volunteered or met me because of the fest. Knowing something I created also brought others together is huge.

Contact Info:

• Website: theflowerfest.com
• Instagram: @theflowerfest or @amy.clover.girl
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/amy-vandiver-40946766/

Image Credits
Kim Meadowlark