SCARBOROUGH HOUSE

Scarborough House Sponsors Whirligig Festival 2023, Hosts National Recording Artist JB Aaron

A Scarborough House Press Release

Scarborough House Partners with North Carolina Whirligig Festival in 19th Annual Celebration

In November 2023, Scarborough House proudly served as a sponsor of the North Carolina Whirligig Festival — the 19th annual celebration of Wilson's iconic kinetic sculptures, drawing more than 50,000 visitors to historic downtown Wilson over the festival weekend. The partnership marked a milestone in Scarborough House's commitment to supporting the cultural and civic life of Wilson County, and brought national recording artist JB Aaron to Wilson for an unforgettable festival weekend that culminated in a sold-out main stage performance and a Scarborough House-hosted After Party at the Magnolia Pavilion.

About the Sponsorship

The North Carolina Whirligig Festival is one of eastern North Carolina's largest annual cultural events. Created in 2004 to celebrate the legacy of folk artist Vollis Simpson — the Wilson County native whose massive, wind-driven kinetic sculptures are now recognized as North Carolina's Official State Folk Art — the festival has grown over two decades into a regional draw that fills downtown Wilson with art, music, food, family activities, and civic pride for one full weekend each November.

In 2023, the festival celebrated its 19th annual installment, centered as always around the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park at 301 S. Goldsboro Street. The two-acre park, home to 30 of Simpson's whirligigs and recently named Best Sculpture Park in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, served as the heart of festival weekend activities.

Scarborough House's sponsorship of the 2023 festival reflected a simple conviction: a community thrives when its institutions invest in each other. Scarborough House is a private estate wedding venue. The Whirligig Festival is a public arts celebration. The two have very different missions — but they share a commitment to Wilson County, to historic preservation, to community gathering, and to the idea that small towns become destinations when residents and businesses choose to make them so.

Bringing JB Aaron to the Whirligig Park Stage

A central part of Scarborough House's 2023 sponsorship was the booking and promotion of national recording artist JB Aaron as a featured headliner at the Whirligig Park Stage. JB Aaron — country music recording artist, performer, and bandleader — brought his full band to Wilson for a Saturday evening performance on November 4, 2023. The PNC-sponsored after-concert at the Whirligig Park Stage drew a packed crowd and capped what many attendees called the strongest musical lineup in festival history.

JB Aaron's band for the Whirligig Festival performance included:

The band's performance — high-energy country with full saxophone arrangements rarely heard in the genre — earned coverage in the Wilson Times, with photographer Drew C. Wilson capturing front-page imagery the following week. The Wilson Times' November 9, 2023 coverage of the festival weekend featured JB Aaron performing on the main stage, alongside extensive photo coverage of the Whirligig Festival's "sunny success."

For Scarborough House, the chance to bring a national recording artist of JB Aaron's caliber to the Whirligig Festival was the kind of high-impact community contribution the venue exists to make. Scarborough House does not run a music venue. But Scarborough House has resources, connections, and a clear belief that Wilson deserves world-class entertainment alongside its world-class folk art.

The After Party at Scarborough House

When the Whirligig Festival closed for the night on Saturday, November 4, 2023, the celebration moved out to Saratoga. Scarborough House hosted the official After Party at the Magnolia Pavilion — a free event open to festival-goers, friends of the venue, and anyone who wanted to keep the night going.

Event details:

The After Party gave festival attendees a chance to meet JB Aaron and his band in a relaxed setting after the main stage performance, and gave Scarborough House the opportunity to introduce itself to a wider Wilson County audience. For many guests, it was their first time on the Scarborough House grounds. For Scarborough House, it was a chance to live out one of the venue's core values: be a real, working part of the community, not a closed-off building that only opens its gates for paying weddings.

The night before — Friday, November 3 — Scarborough House also took JB Aaron and the band out to Casita Brewing Company in downtown Wilson for an impromptu karaoke night, giving the band a chance to experience Wilson's growing brewery scene firsthand and connect with local fans before the main festival weekend.

Wilson County in 2023: A Town on the Rise

The 2023 Whirligig Festival came at a moment when Wilson was clearly on its way somewhere. The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, opened in 2017, had already begun catalyzing major investment in downtown Wilson — over $25 million in private and public capital flowing into the two-block radius around the park. New restaurants. A new brewery. New apartments. Plans for a new hotel. The downtown was being remade, slowly and beautifully, around the whirligigs.

And on the horizon, even in November 2023, was the project that would finally tip Wilson into national attention: the new downtown ballpark. Wilson Stadium — the new home of the Wilson Warbirds, Single-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers — was already under construction, with groundbreaking having taken place in May 2024 (the timeline overlapping closely with the 2023 festival). The stadium would eventually open April 14, 2026 to a sold-out crowd, just blocks from the Whirligig Park, anchoring a $280 million development that will transform 50 acres of downtown Wilson over the coming years.

In other words: the 2023 Whirligig Festival took place during one of the most exciting moments in modern Wilson history. The whirligigs were drawing arts tourism. The downtown was attracting investment. Professional baseball was on the way. New restaurants were opening. Old buildings were being adaptively reused. And a small wedding venue 20 minutes east of downtown — Scarborough House, in the middle of its own restoration story — was excited to play whatever role it could in supporting the moment.

Scarborough House is excited to see all the businesses coming to the greater Raleigh area. Wilson is feeling the effects of Raleigh's growth, and the city is responding with confidence. The whirligigs, the new stadium, the downtown restaurants, the breweries, the hotels, the historic homes, the wedding venues — all of it is connected. None of it works alone. The 2023 Whirligig Festival was one of the clearest demonstrations of that interconnection: 50,000 visitors descending on Wilson for one weekend, supported by a network of local businesses, sponsors, vendors, and venues all pulling in the same direction.

Why This Matters for Scarborough House

For couples planning a wedding at Scarborough House, the 2023 Whirligig Festival sponsorship matters for reasons that extend well beyond a single weekend in November. It signals something about how the venue thinks.

Scarborough House is invested in Wilson. Sponsoring a major regional festival, hosting a nationally-recognized recording artist, opening the Magnolia Pavilion to the community for a free after-party — these are not the moves of a venue that views itself as separate from the town it sits in. They are the moves of a venue that sees its success as inseparable from Wilson's success.

Scarborough House has range. The same Magnolia Pavilion that hosted JB Aaron's band and 200+ festival-goers in November 2023 hosts intimate wedding ceremonies for 50 guests, formal receptions for 200, vendor showcases, charity teas, Cars & Coffee meets, and corporate events. Couples touring Scarborough House aren't seeing a venue with one configuration — they're seeing a property that has hosted weddings, concerts, festivals, fundraisers, car shows, and private celebrations of every imaginable kind. That experience translates directly into wedding day execution.

Scarborough House understands destination weddings. Couples who book Scarborough House are typically choosing a destination wedding format — flying in family from out of state, putting guests up at hotels, planning a multi-day weekend rather than a single-day event. Hosting events like the Whirligig Festival After Party gave Scarborough House deep operational experience in managing the kind of "weekend wedding" guest flow that destination weddings require: arrival logistics, vendor coordination, local entertainment, downtown excursions, late-night events, and morning-after gatherings. Couples benefit from that experience whether they realize it or not.

Scarborough House is part of a network. Hosting the Whirligig Festival After Party, taking JB Aaron's band to Casita Brewing Company, sponsoring a regional festival — these activities build relationships with the vendors, venues, restaurants, and businesses that make Wilson County tick. When a couple books Scarborough House, they are not just renting a building. They are accessing a network of partners — caterers, florists, photographers, transportation services, hotels, breweries, restaurants — that has been built up over years of community engagement. That network depth cannot be created by a brand-new venue. It has to be earned.

Looking Forward: Scarborough House and Wilson's Next Chapter

The 2023 Whirligig Festival was a milestone moment for Scarborough House, but it was also a beginning. The venue continues to look for opportunities to support the cultural, civic, and economic life of Wilson County — through sponsorships, charity events, community gatherings, and the kind of small daily decisions that signal where a venue's loyalties lie.

Josh and Meika Darville — the husband-and-wife stewards who purchased the historic Major James Scarborough estate in 2020 and undertook its multi-year restoration — have made community engagement a core part of how they run the venue from day one. The hope is that Scarborough House continues, for many years to come, to be a place where the broader Wilson community can gather, celebrate, raise money for important causes, host national-caliber entertainment, and do the unglamorous daily work of being a good neighbor.

Wilson is becoming one of the most exciting small cities in eastern North Carolina. Scarborough House is grateful to be part of that story.

About JB Aaron

JB Aaron is a national recording artist whose career includes performances across the United States and recognition in the country music industry. Following his 2023 Whirligig Festival performance, JB Aaron was featured on the front page of The Wilson Times the following week, capturing the impact of his appearance on Wilson's signature annual celebration. JB Aaron's full band — featuring Sean Jannay (guitar), Brendan Gentry-DeBonis (bass), Justin Fitts (drums), and Jason Moynihan (saxophone) — brings a distinctive sound that blends traditional country instrumentation with full horn arrangements.

For booking inquiries: visit JBAaronMusic.com.

About the North Carolina Whirligig Festival

The North Carolina Whirligig Festival, held annually on the first full weekend of November in historic downtown Wilson, NC, is one of eastern North Carolina's largest annual cultural events. The festival celebrates the legacy of folk artist Vollis Simpson and draws more than 50,000 attendees each year. Festival activities are centered around the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park at 301 S. Goldsboro Street, Wilson, NC 27893, and include live music, art vendors, food, family activities, and the chance to see all 30 of Simpson's massive kinetic sculptures in their permanent home.

For festival information, sponsorship opportunities, or vendor applications: visit WhirligigFestivalNC.org.

About Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park

The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park is a public art park in historic downtown Wilson, NC, featuring 30 large-scale kinetic sculptures designed and built by folk artist Vollis Simpson (1919–2013). Simpson, a WWII veteran and Wilson County native, began creating his "whirligigs" — wind-powered sculptures built from recycled industrial parts — in his retirement years. His work is now part of permanent collections at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Wilson park, opened in 2017 after a $8 million community-led restoration effort, is a partnership of Wilson Downtown Properties, the City of Wilson, Wilson Downtown Development, and the North Carolina Arts Council. Simpson's whirligigs are recognized as North Carolina's Official State Folk Art, and the park was named Best Sculpture Park in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.

Park address: 301 S. Goldsboro Street, Wilson, NC 27893.

Wedding Inquiries

Scarborough House is currently booking weddings through 2027. Couples interested in touring the property can request a private tour or reach the team directly at weddings@scarboroughhouse.com.

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About Scarborough House

Scarborough House is a historic 1820 private estate wedding venue located in Saratoga, North Carolina, approximately 50 miles east of Raleigh. The 18-acre property features the fully restored main house, the open-air Magnolia Pavilion, multiple ceremony locations, and accommodations for the wedding party. Owned and operated by Josh and Meika Darville since 2020, Scarborough House hosts weddings, private events, sponsored cultural events, and community gatherings throughout the year. The venue is a member of the greater Raleigh area destination wedding circuit and is widely recognized as one of eastern North Carolina's premier historic wedding venues.

Schema markup: Article + mentions Scarborough House (Place) + JB Aaron (Person, MusicGroup) + North Carolina Whirligig Festival (Event) + Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park (Place) + Wilson Times (Organization)

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