Mission 

The Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival works to enrich the community, enhance Cary's identity, and foster community pride by celebrating excellence in the visual and performing arts. This is achieved through the following goals.

1. Bring the highest quality national artists and provide an outlet for local and emerging artists to exhibit and sell their artwork and a place where they can have peer interaction and idea-sharing.
2. Provide a family-oriented recreational and cultural community-based event that is free to the public.
3. Expose the community to a variety of high-quality art forms.
4. Collaborate with local arts organizations to provide exposure for their organizations.
5. Provide an opportunity for local artists to demonstrate artwork via guild demonstration booths.
6. Provide a signature event that brings a positive economic impact to Cary's downtown area.
7. Maintain the highest quality possible to represent the Town of Cary and the Triangle region in the most positive light and provide a positive artistic experience for the community.
8. Showcasing Cary's outstanding Parks & Greenway system (through festival location for Spring Daze) and cultural facilities via Lazy Daze (Cary Arts Center; Page-Walker Arts & History Center; The Cary).

History

Seeing a need for more community experiences, Jerry Miller of Cary, NC, held the first Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival on August 27, 1977, on E. Chatham St. between Academy St. and Walker St. The event was sponsored by the Cary Board of Directors of Southern National Bank. One hundred artisans were charged $10 for their 10' x 10' booth space. A flatbed truck served as the first stage, and when organizers realized they had forgotten to bring the piano from Jordan Hall, they had to retrieve it the morning of the festival. The festival turned a $500 profit, which was used to purchase a large tent for the Town of Cary’s recreation department. For the remainder of the 1970s, the festival grew to include 250 artists and a covered stage. The 1979 festival featured the first flower-arranging contest.

The 1980s were a time of great growth for the festival. In 1981, the festival was held on Town Hall Campus for the first time due to a downtown renovation. The newly formed Lazy Daze grants program provided funds for the Cary Town Clock, located at the corner of Academy St. and Chatham St., in 1983 and the Lazy Daze Playground in 1985. The festival became the fourth largest in North Carolina in 1986, offered its first parking shuttle in 1987, and became a juried art festival in 1989. The Cary Town Band made its first appearance at Lazy Daze in 1988.

In the 1990s, the festival grew to include around 500 artists. To meet the demands of the growing festival, Amtrak offered train service to the festival from Durham, NC, and back, and restroom trailers were added in 1994. Longtime organizer Sam Bishop retired from the festival in 1999.

The 2000s featured many firsts for the festival. Kids World was introduced in 2000 as a play and activity area for young festivalgoers. The 2001 festival marked the 25th anniversary of Lazy Daze and featured the first invitational awards and a special exhibit reflecting on the festival’s 25-year history. In 2006, an estimated 2 million commemorative Diet Pepsi cans were distributed throughout North Carolina. The first beer garden was introduced in 2007 and was sponsored by the Sister Cities Association of Cary, which brings cultural representatives from Cary’s sister cities to the festival.

By 2010, the Lazy Daze grants program had awarded more than $500,000 to local cultural groups, and that number increased to $750,000 by 2018. In 2011, for the first time, the festival had to be canceled due to Hurricane Irene, which made landfall at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the festival. In 2015, Lazy Daze moved back to Town Hall Campus as another downtown renovation was in progress. The festival remains on Town Hall Campus to this day. In its new location, the festival expanded to a two-day format in 2017 in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the festival. The Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival made its debut on the Sunshine Artist Top 200 list in 2018, ranking 47th out of 100 in the Classic and Contemporary Art Festivals category. The festival earned the recognition again in 2019, placing 20th out of 100.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was canceled for the second time in its history.

In the years following the pandemic, Lazy Daze continued to evolve as Cary’s downtown grew around it. The 48th annual Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival in 2024 drew an estimated 50,000 visitors to Downtown Cary and featured almost 300 artists from 16 states. That same year, founder Jerry Miller was featured in the August issue of Our State magazine in the article “A Man About Town,” honoring his lasting impact on Cary and the festival he helped create. The 2024 festival also saw the introduction of the Kid Collectors Market, an opportunity for children ages 6–12 to start an art collection of their own with pieces donated by festival artists.

In 2025, festival founder Jerry Miller passed away at the age of 93. His memory continues to be honored each year with the presentation of the Jerry Miller Best in Show awards.

The 2025 festival introduced additional new features, including the Academy Street Chalk Walk, which brought street painters to the sidewalks between Downtown Cary Park and Town Hall Campus and linked the two areas along the Academy St. corridor.

In 2026, Lazy Daze celebrates its 50th event. The milestone festival will take place August 22–23 at Cary Town Hall Campus and will feature more than 250 artists, live entertainment on four stages, more than 25 food vendors, the beer garden, Lazy Lounge, and special anniversary programming honoring five decades of creativity and community in Cary.

Awards

2004 - Regional Event of the Year for North & South Carolina by the North Carolina Association of Festivals & Events

2016 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event of Festival in Western Wake County

2017 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival in Western Wake County

2018 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event of Festival in Western Wake County

2018 - Sunshine Artists Top 200, placing 47 out of 100 in Classic and Contemporary Art Festivals

2018 - WRAL Voter's Choice Award for Best Festival

2019 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival in Western Wake County

2019 - Sunshine Artists Top 200, placing 20 out of 100 in Classic and Contemporary Art Festivals

2020 - Sunshine Artists Top 200 of the past decade: 2010-2020, placing 52 out of 100 in Classic and Contemporary Art Festivals

2021 - WRAL Voter's Choice Award for Best Family-Friendly Event

2021 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival in Western Wake County

2022 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival

2022 -  Sunshine Artists Top 200

2023 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival

2023 - WRAL Voter's Choice Award for Best Festival - Third Place 

2024 - WRAL Voter's Choice Award for Best Festival 

2024 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival

2024 - USCC Organics Diversion Program of the Year

2025 - SFEA Kaleidoscope Award - Best Green Initiative 

2025 - Cary Maggy Award for Best Local Event or Festival