BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. – Mark your calendars! The Beaver Dam Farm Sunflower Festival is ready to bring sunshine and smiles to Buchanan as it celebrates its 10th anniversary next month with 10 days of festivities.
From Sept. 5-14, the festival will feature the following additions to mark its 10th year:
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- Live release of 300 painted lady butterflies
- 94.9 Star Country live remote on opening night
- A special-edition sunflower beer in partnership with AFOG Brewing (release event: Saturday, August 16 in Buchanan)
- A limited-edition coffee roast in partnership with Asunder Coffee
- The release of children’s book, From Seeds to Sunshine: Our Farm’s Journey, written by Candace Monaghan
- The moving Field of Heroes tribute: 406 American flags with name tags honoring first responders lost on 9/11
- Collector sticker packs of all nine past festival t-shirt designs
- 2026 Sunflower Calendars
- Flyover experience from Blacksburg/Roanoke Airport over the sunflower fields
Recognized as the largest sunflower festival and vendor show on the East Coast, the popular event is expected to draw thousands of visitors once again. Each fall, people from near and far travel to this locally family-owned farm to see 700,000 sunflowers in full bloom and enjoy scenic hayrides, photo ops and more than 130 handmade craft and food vendors.
The story of bringing a sunflower festival to Beaver Dam Farm began as a simple seed of an idea. This generational farm, purchased in 1900, has evolved over the years: from a tomato cannery in 1916, to a dairy farm in 1927, and now thriving as a working beef cattle operation that also sells hay and straw.
“Back in 2015, we had an open field, and my father said out of the blue, ‘I’m going to plant sunflowers,’” recalls Candace Monaghan, the festival’s founder. “There was no other reason than he thought they were pretty.”
The following year, Monaghan opened the field to the public, expecting 300 visitors. Much to her surprise, 1,600 people showed up that day.
The festival has since grown to welcome more than 20,000 visitors annually, and in 2023, the family launched Gracely Hill, a wedding and event venue overlooking the farm. The festival and its related businesses generated approximately $1.4 million in local impact in 2023, according an independent economic study.
To learn more about this year’s Beaver Dam Farm Sunflower Festival, click here.