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Crowds are expected to return by the thousands for the Delray Affair as it resumes along Atlantic Avenue. Photos provided

After a 2-year hiatus, the Delray Affair is returning — and so are the gladiolus bulbs

By Rich Pollack

For the thousands of people who have made an annual pilgrimage to Atlantic Avenue for three days each spring, the Delray Affair is more than just a street festival.
It is a tradition — one that evolved from a flower festival with parades and beauty queens — and one that has endured for six decades.
After a two-year pandemic-related hiccup, the Delray Affair is returning to the Avenue April 8 through 10, bringing with it a few of the icons that have defined the event for 60 years.
Once again this year, there will be entertainment, a kids zone and yes, conch fritters, a staple of the event. More than 500 booths of artists and crafters as well as vendors with a wide array of items for sale will line the streets along 12 city blocks.
To celebrate the gala’s 60th anniversary, there will be a ’60s theme, with some participants dressing in ’60s attire, and, of course, plenty to eat and drink.
More than anything else, however, there will be tradition.
“There’s something in all of us that likes to hang on to tradition and the Delray Affair is probably the first and oldest tradition that still exists in Delray,” said Nancy Stewart, whose Festival Management Group produces the event for the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.
For many, the return of the Delray Affair means a chance to gather with friends and family for a yearly visit and perhaps run into acquaintances they might not have seen since the last festival.
“The Delray Affair was founded to help the business community but has grown to become a beloved event that brings the community together,” said Stephanie Immelman, the chamber’s CEO. “We need that now more than ever.”
It is that sense of community that brings artists like Deborah LaFogg Docherty — a Delray Beach resident who paints wildlife images — back every year. “The Delray Affair is like coming home to family and friends,” says LaFogg Docherty, who has been a regular at the show for at least 30 years. “It gives you that warm feeling that this is where you belong.”
This year, the Delray Beach Historical Society will give visitors a chance to stroll down memory lane via photos from Delray Beach’s Gladiola Festival, a precursor of the Delray Affair.
The historical society will sell gladiolus corms (bulbs), with the hope that residents will plant a little reminder of the community’s history in their yards.
“It is our vision to have this iconic, perennial flower growing in everyone’s backyard,” says David Cook, the Delray Affair chairman for the historical society.

Workers harvest gladiolus in the fields west of Delray Beach.

Miles of color
The bulbs are the closest thing you will see to the grown gladiolas that the festival used to sell. With the disappearance of the last gladiola farms in the area — and in most of the U.S. — several years ago, organizers discovered it was too costly to import them from overseas. Gladiolas, according to longtime resident Roy Simon, considered by many to be the founder of the Delray Affair, were once so plentiful that gladiolus fields stretched from Military Trail to U.S. Highway 441, creating a miles-long splash of many colors when the flowers bloomed.
“It was just a beautiful thing to see,” Simon said.
In all, there were believed to be 11 nurseries growing as many as 14 varieties of gladiolas, according to the historical society archives.
During the early 1950s, Delray was the nation’s leading producer of gladiolas, with about 1,600 acres under cultivation.

A float at the 1986 Delray Affair transported the 1948 and 1986 Gladiola Queens.

The gladiolas were so important to Delray Beach that from 1947 to 1953 the community held an annual Gladiola Festival with parades through the then relatively small town.
The Gladiola Festival eventually faded away as vegetable farming all but replaced the floral industry, but it was reinvented in 1960 to recognize the shift after Simon saw a street festival while visiting relatives in the Central Florida town of Winter Park. “I came home and said, ‘We ought to have this in Delray,’” he said.
A committee was formed and an agricultural exhibition was created, showcasing everything grown in Delray Beach including vegetables, flowers and citrus. There were even cows on the Avenue.
At the time, Delray Beach was known as a haven for artists, cartoonists and writers and by 1962 community leaders decided to expand the festival by inviting them to be part of the event, transforming it into a street festival that became the Delray Affair.
Even then, the party stretched from Swinton Avenue to the Intracoastal Waterway, with artists painting in Veterans Park.

Joyce Totterdale Murphree (center) serves punch during an early Gladiola Festival.

Soon, vendors asked to take part but Atlantic Avenue was strictly for writers and artists. A Thieves Market, where all sorts of merchandise was sold, was opened in the parking lot north of Atlantic just east of the railroad tracks and remained for many years.
“The ultimate goal was to show off our town,” Simon says. “If you want to show off your town, you need an attraction to bring people in.”
Back then, the Delray Affair helped keep businesses afloat after the end of the tourist season. And it remains an important fundraiser for the chamber, while at the same time helping merchants.
“I’m happy that it’s still going on and that we’re still showcasing our city and drawing people from all over,” Simon said.
Some traditions, it seems, are worth keeping.

If You Go
What: The 60th annual Delray Affair
Where: Downtown Delray Beach
When: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. April 8-9, 10-5 April 10.
Admission: Free
Info: 561-278-0424 or www.delrayaffair.com

Visitors look at a display of historic photos at a past Delray Affair. Photo provided by Delray Affair/Julia Rose