[bright music] ♪ I'm here with Olivia Dawson, the mayor of Burgaw.

Olivia, how would you describe Burgaw to someone who's never visited before?

- [Mayor Dawson] Well, Burgaw is a great small town.

People move here and haven't left here, because they wanna be part of a connected small town community, so people old and new are loving their time here in Burgaw.

- And it is a really good mix of old and new.

- It is, so we're really rich in history.

We've got lots of historical things to see here.

We've got our old depot, one of the oldest depots in the state.

We've got our old jail, which is our tourism and blueberry festival office.

Upstairs of that is still intact.

It's still looks like the old jail, so that hasn't been restored yet.

We have a little bit of what's left of the railroad.

We've got our old box cars behind this location here, our old historic downtown, which we're trying to revitalize with some new improvements, but keeping what people love about older historic downtowns.

- [Deborah] And I understand this has become quite the filming destination.

- Absolutely, so many films have been filmed here over, oh what, 20, 30 years.

We have older movies such as "Silver Bullet," "Under the Dome," "Revolution," "Date with an Angel, which is where we got our gazebo from, up into a most recent series of "Welcome to Flatch," which has been a big hit across the US.

It still remains one of the many locations that they come back to, but it's always been a wonderful location, and not a lot has changed, and so that's what the film industry comes back for, to film our iconic downtown and old historic buildings that again, haven't changed.

- [Deborah] You're from Burgaw.

What made you decide to run for mayor?

- Because I'm from Burgaw, and I really love this community and this town, it was something I had a desire to do, maybe a little later in life, but it's all about timing, and now's that time.

It was where I felt like I needed to be.

- [Deborah] And I think you told me that you told your husband that, "One day, I'm gonna run for mayor," and he held it to it, didn't he?

- Yeah, he did.

I mean, it was kind of a, I say a joke, but not really.

It was like, you know, "One day I wanna run for mayor," and he's like, "One day when you're mayor."

And it was just kind of one of those things we said around the house, but it was something I really wanted to do.

I am one of the youngest.

I'm not the youngest, but I am the first female, so really proud to to say I'm the first female to accomplish being a mayor here.

- [Deborah] So what's next for Burgaw?

- [Mayor Dawson] So we don't want to change Burgaw, but we wanna continue to be, and we are growing to be a destination.

We want you to come here and not only day trip with us, we've now got some wonderful places located downtown that you can actually come and spend the night with us, and then walk and get your coffee, or walk to our new brewery that's in town, just take a stroll around our courthouse square, or stay for one of our big events that is happening in town.

- [Deborah] And the Blueberry Festival, I think is probably one of those big attractions, right?

- It is.

The Blueberry Festival just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

The North Carolina Blueberry Festival is a popular event in North Carolina, well attended.

It ranges from 40 to about 60,000 people.

This year's festival was more of a two day event, so it's growing in length, and definitely growing in footprint.

- Mayor Dawson, thank you so much for hosting us.

I can't wait to see more of the town.

- Well, thank you for being here today.

We're excited that you're here in Burgaw.

Let me show you around.

- To find out more about Burgaw, go to visit pender.com/burgaw.