Even small towns cannot escape a little drama and controversy. On the seemingly most benign events. Every mid-July, Sequim, Washington celebrates their lavender industry by highlighting local lavender farms, showcase artists, food, and enjoy a variety of music. But this year, the lavender farmers and representatives had some sort of falling out and the event split into two. The Lavender Festival and the Lavender Faire.
The Festival with its artists, food vendors and musicians was held “downtown” on Fir Street and you drove yourself to selected small lavender farms (free). The Faire was held in Carrie Blake Park with artists, food vendors, musicians, and booths representing special interests (National Park rangers explaining the upcoming tear-down of the Elwha River dams, Washington State University Master Gardeners, and more). The selected large lavender farms provided bus tours from the park ($10). You did catch the underlines…the dispute is between the little guys and the big guys.
Personally, we enjoyed getting two festivals on one weekend. Each had a different flavor and both were within walking distance of our RV Park. Especially liked the music of Pearl Django at the Lavender Festival. Hot gypsy jazz. Great stuff. Need to find them on iTunes and download a few songs.
Unfortunately, this last spring and summer (so far) have been cooler than usual and the lavender was not in full bloom. Give it another two weeks and we are told the air will be pungent with lavender scent.
Two weeks? That is about the time we'll be hitting the OP. I love the blooming lavender!
ReplyDeleteTwo festivals within walking distance sounds great.
ReplyDeleteMy husband & I drove 400 miles with our RV and 2 dogs to attend the Lavender Festival. We did not know about the split between the smaller farms(Festival) and larger farms(Faire) till we got to Sequim. We paid the $15 each to go see the 6 larger farms associated with the Faire. Our dogs were in their crates in the back of our SUV. We were told to leave the premises at Purple Haze because they said "we don't like dogs here". It was difficult to locate the Humane Society dog sitting area because it was in the back of the vendor stalls at Carrie Park. We felt it was a gross error in judgement that All the Honeypots were located there also.They should have been put in several locations not one. We felt really sorry for the elderly & diabled. The dog park parking lot was blocked to Vendors only. The highlights of our trip were mostly when we visited the smaller farms like Lavender Connection, Grandpas and Fat Cat (awesome strawberry ruhbarb pie). Those people were golden and made us feel like we were actually welcome to be there.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't make it out to the farms, since we planned to visit after the festival. Sounds like we need to visit the smaller farms, if we still can (sometimes they close to the public after the festival). I would be surprised if the festival stays divided. It did make things a bit confusing.
ReplyDeleteActually the controversy is all about freedom! Just ask the farmers. They left all the funds and trademarks with the old group when they left. You'll even find open discussion on their Facebook page with info about the two groups (https://www.facebook.com/SequimLavender). They want visitors to Sequim know about both events. No one is trying to push an agenda or keep people in the dark. Isn't that what makes America great? It's reinvigorating to everyone!
ReplyDeleteDan, I must disagree. My daughter and I volunteered to distribute flyers for the Lavender Growers (Festival) group as a community service project. Time after time, when we got to area businesses, we were told that the Lavender Festival people had already been there, pointing to the Lavender Faire advertising, and they had been told the Lavender Festival had been moved this year to Carrie Blake Park. We repeated "Really? Well you were not told the truth." again and again. Aside from any "discussions" on their website, the lies we ran into from them in the community were very eye opening. ~Michelle~
ReplyDeleteWe weren't aware of there being two events, in fact we missed the event weekend all together. We went to Sequim yesterday, July 25...a beautiful, warm, breeze day with delightful scents, lots of bees and birds. We went to a couple of larger, and a couple smaller farms. Proprietors and employees were all delightful and we were please that the crowds were small and we enjoyed the leisurely pace. One fellow took the time to explain how to grow Lavender and more importantly, how to prune them. Maybe the week after is something to keep in mind. (Some farms were closed, but there were more than enough of them open to take all the time we had to spend on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Thank you all for your gracious hospitality.
ReplyDeleteHere's some wise advice for both sides to keep in mind. "Prudence, Policy, and a true Christian Spirit, will lead us to look with Compassion upon their Errors without insulting them." George Washington
ReplyDeleteWe were in the area for the 5th time during the Lavender Festival. Glad they split,cause little farms were never featured before. Found them to be much more welcoming than some of the big farms. Lots of the big farms are for sale, so the future seems to rest in the hands of the small farmers. Cedarbrook Lavender Farm didn't like that we had a dog in the car. For a farm that is run down and has fewer lavender plants than the little farms, we couldn't understand why they were on the $15 farm tour. The large farm out by the water was lovely though!
ReplyDeleteIt was a rainy weekend for Lavender Festival so we limited our shopping to the street fair, at the original location downtown, because we heard lots of people complaining about disorganization and mud at the park. I was glad we went to the street fair anyway. The items we specifically wanted to get were all there: soap, catnip toys, personalized signs, hazelnuts, crocheted top towels and Italian charms. Then we went to visit the small farms from the driving guide. We had never visited a lavender farm at past festivals because I've never liked the idea of being herded around on the bus so had only ever shopped at the street fair before this year. We really enjoyed the opportunity to go at our own pace in our own car and the people at the small farms were so friendly. An enjoyable weekend, despite the rain.
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