SEQUIM — High gasoline prices might have had a positive effect on the Sequim Lavender Festival, director Scott Nagel said as the three-day festival wrapped up Sunday.
Nagel said that the festival was ranging within the 25,000 to 30,000 attendance that organizers were expecting based on past years’ response.
“This is one of our biggest crowds ever,” he said.
Although he wouldn’t estimate how many people had shown up since Friday, he did say that it was with in their “normal range.”
“The vendors are really doing great,” Nagel said.
“People were worried about gas prices, but that hasn’t really affected this.
“In fact, we might be benefiting from it.”
Because gas prices are high — more than $4 a gallon throughout the region — Puget Sound-area people are staying closer to home, Nagel said.
“Where better to come on a short trip than the Peninsula?” he asked.
Nonetheless, some festival-goers traveled far to savor the purple herb, street fair and other aspects of the Dungeness Valley festival.
“I personally talked to people from Germany and England, and there are tons of Canadians here,” Nagel said.
“We probably have representatives from most of the States.”
He added that he hoped other festivals would market themselves as a short getaway from the Seattle area.
“If we market ourselves right, we can really benefit from the higher gas prices,” he said.
“As for the Lavender Festival we weren’t affected. We had crowds of people here at 10 a.m. Sunday morning — and that is unheard of.”
The Lavender Festival featured eight farms and the downtown vendor fair, Nagel said.
“Really, it is almost like having nine festivals at once because every farm has their own music and entertainment and events,” he said.
“Every venue has been busy this year.
Traffic might have been slow moving, but wasn’t a major issue during the three days, said Sequim Police Department Traffic Sgt. Ken Almberg.
“A lot of people slowed down because a lot of people were looking at the electric sign trying to figure out if it had directions on it,” he said.
“But there were no accidents and the weather worked out OK.
“Downtown, though, the foot traffic was shoulder to shoulder.”
By 7 p.m. Sunday, the state ferry from Kingston to Edmonds was on a tally system and a three-hour wait was in effect for those trying to return to the Seattle area.
