BILLINGS — It's hard to miss the sea of sunflowers near the intersection of Shiloh Avenue and Grand Avenue in the Billings West End. The annual Sun and Celosia Sunflower festival is back for a second year and is bigger than ever.
It started as a seed of an idea for Billings resident Aubrey Hopkins a couple of years ago. With the community's support, it's turned into a beautiful tradition and a plant lovers dream.
Thousands showed up on Friday and Saturday to take photos, enjoy food trucks and live music, and pick sunflowers.
"I have actually doubled the size of the sunflower field and like tripled the amount of sunflowers because we had so many people turn out or come out here last year," said Hopkins Saturday at the field.
Hopkins said she planted 6,000 sunflowers this year to keep up with the demand. She said about 5,000 people showed up to the festival last year.
"These are gold rush sunflowers. So, this is my secret to getting everything to bloom so quickly because it only takes them like just over a month, like a month and a half to grow. And then they grow tons and tons of blooms. So, they're like perfect bouquet size," Hopkins said.
She hopes the festival will continue to grow in the years to come.
