Festival History:

• The seeds of this festive annual pilgrimage germinated when pioneer nursuryment Ellwanger and Barry endowed the community of Rochester with 20 acres of rolling hills, dedicated as Highland Park, in 1888.
• Highland Park is famed as the nation's first great arboretum: A scenically landscaped exposition of blossoming shrubs and trees.
• The park's lilac collection was started by horticulturalist John Dunbar in 1872 with 20 varieties.
  • Some of these varieties descended from slips of native Balkan Mountain flowers carried to the new world by colonists.
  • These descendent varieties are favored as a symbol of good luck.