Nantucket's Daffodil Festival: A Guide to Daffy Weekend

For anyone who wants to know the exact moment Nantucket wakes up each year, it is the last weekend of April, when more than three million daffodils bloom across the island and the Daffodil Festival fills Main Street with antique cars and the whole island with color. Locals call it Daffy Weekend, and it is the first great gathering of the season, the weekend seasonal residents return, the shops and restaurants reopen in earnest, and the island shifts out of its winter quiet. Most recently, the 50th annual festival took place April 23 to 26, 2026. Drawing on more than twenty years on the island, Bernadette Meyer shares what makes the weekend special and why it marks more than the arrival of spring.

• The Nantucket Daffodil Festival is held each year on the last weekend of April; the 50th annual edition took place April 23 to 26, 2026.
• The weekend's centerpiece is the antique car parade, more than 100 decorated vintage vehicles that travel from Main Street out to a celebrated tailgate picnic in Sconset.
• The festival began in the 1970s through the Nantucket Garden Club, whose daffodil-planting drive is the origin of the island's annual bloom of over three million flowers.
• As the start of Nantucket's social season, Daffy Weekend is also the front edge of the island's spring real estate season, when activity reawakens.

How did the Daffodil Festival begin?

The festival traces to the 1970s and the vision of Jean MacAusland, a longtime resident connected to Gourmet magazine, who as a member of the Nantucket Garden Club championed planting daffodil bulbs across the island to beautify it and mark the return of spring. That planting effort, continued by the Garden Club to this day with the help of island schoolchildren, is the reason Nantucket now blooms with more than three million daffodils every April.

What began as a simple beautification effort grew into one of the island's signature traditions, and the through-line still matters: the daffodils are a community gift, planted by generations of islanders for the island itself. That spirit, a community investing in its own character rather than simply hosting visitors, is part of what distinguishes Nantucket from a seasonal resort.

What happens during Daffy Weekend?

The festival unfolds across the whole island over several days, but a handful of beloved traditions anchor it each year.

The antique car parade is the centerpiece. More than 100 vintage vehicles, decorated in daffodils, line Main Street before parading through downtown and out Milestone Road to Siasconset, where participants set up an elaborate, often whimsically themed tailgate picnic on the village lawns. It is the image most associated with the weekend and a genuine spectacle.

The Nantucket Garden Club's juried Daffodil Flower Show, sanctioned by the American Daffodil Society, brings together thousands of blooms and floral arrangements and draws judges from across the country. Alongside it, family traditions fill Children's Beach: the Daffy Hat Pageant, the children's bike parade, and the Daffy Dog Parade, which invites costumed pets to strut for a good cause, with proceeds benefiting the island's animal shelter. A festive kickoff party opens the weekend, and shops, galleries, and restaurants across town join in with daffodil-themed touches.

Why does the Daffodil Festival matter beyond the flowers?

Because of when it lands and what it signals. Daffy Weekend is the first major event of Nantucket's calendar, the moment the island comes back to life after winter. For many seasonal residents, it is the weekend they return; for the island, it is the start of the season.

That timing matters for the real estate market too. Spring is when buyer activity reaccelerates on Nantucket and sellers prepare to list, and the Daffodil Festival is its unofficial opening. The buyers who fall for Nantucket are often the ones who experience a weekend like this one, when the island's beauty, community, and energy are all on display at once. For a fuller sense of the season ahead, the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival follows in late May, and the guide to things to do on Nantucket covers the rest of the year.

Where should visitors stay?

Nantucket offers a full range of lodging for the weekend, from in-town inns and hotels to cottages and waterfront homes. Because Daffodil Weekend is popular and the island's inventory is limited, early planning is wise. Bernadette maintains a portfolio of exclusive vacation rentals, from cozy cottages to historic homes, for those who prefer the space and character of a private home.