SEQUIM — Sequim Lavender Weekend, featuring events hosted by two lavender groups as well as community activities, will begin Friday.
During the three-day festival, lavender lovers will have plenty of options for picking lavender and purchasing lavender plants and lavender-themed arts and crafts, as well as enjoying music, food, quilts and antique cars.
“We want people to come and have a good time,” said Barbara Hanna, city communications and marketing director.
To help visitors find venues and to relieve parking and traffic congestion, a free in-city shuttle bus will loop around and through events from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Shuttle stops include the J.C. Penney parking lot, the QFC parking lot and the Water Reuse Demonstration Park near Carrie Blake Park, and the shuttle will make stops at the Lavender Festival Street Faire, Lavender in the Park, the Quilt Show, the Lavender Car Show, the Open Aire Market and downtown Sequim.
The shuttle will meet with Heritage Lavender Farm Tour buses at Carrie Blake Park.
Two groups are hosting events.
In 2011, the Sequim Lavender Farmers Association split off from the Sequim Lavender Growers Association.
Lavender Farm Faire
The Sequim Lavender Farm Faire, created by the farmers association, features Lavender in the Park and the Heritage Lavender Farm Tour.
Located at Carrie Blake Park, Lavender in the Park begins at 11:30 a.m. Friday. Admission is free.
Ciscoe Morris, a gardening expert who appears on television and radio, will appear during the opening ceremonies, and the Army’s 133rd Army Band will perform.
The fair will include more than 100 booths featuring lavender, crafts and community groups, as well as 14 food booths, a lavender tea garden, a wine and beer garden, and live music.
The Heritage Lavender Farm Tour, which guides visitors through seven lavender farms, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday .
The tour will cost $15, with active-duty military and dependents charged $10, and children 12 and younger admitted free.
Music will start with a free open-air jazz concert at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of BrokersGroup Real Estate Professionals, 219 W. Washington St.
Jazz in the Alley will include performances by Gypsy jazz artist Pearl Django and Django Reinhardt.
Food and a wine garden are available for guests at the concert.
On Saturday, the evening will conclude with a concert at Olympic Cellars Winery featuring Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys.
The concert will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday at 255410 U.S. Highway 101, 9 miles west of Sequim.
Advance tickets cost $10 and are available at www.olympiccellars.com.
More information about the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire is at www.sequimlavenderfarms.org.
Lavender Festival
The growers association will host the Sequim Lavender Festival Street Fair and a free self-guided tour called the Sequim Lavender Festival Farm Tour.
The street fair will offer a variety of art techniques and media, photography, pottery, metalwork and leather work on Fir Street between Sequim Avenue and Third Street.
Food offerings will include vegan options, barbecue, lavender ice cream, crab cakes and salmon.
Local wines and beer will be featured in the wine and beer garden.
Live music will be performed on stage all weekend.
The Sequim Lavender Festival Farm Tour, associated with the street fair, is a free self-guided tour of seven lavender farms.
Farms are open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Maps for the tour will be available at kiosks at the street fair.
The Sequim Valley Car Club will showcase antique, classic and custom cars at the Lavender Car Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Sequim High School sports field.
Car show co-chair Bill Zynda said the club is expecting as many as 200 antique cars, including 15 early Ford Thunderbirds from Gig Harbor.
Chantilly Lace will perform on the car show stage from noon to 3 p.m.
The car show will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, which has units in Sequim and Port Angeles.
More information about the Sequim Lavender Festival is at www.sequimlavenderfestivalweekend.com.
Community events
The list of community events includes a performance of “Bullshot Crummond,” a 1930s detective parody presented by Olympic Theatre Arts, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $16.50 for adults, $11.50 for children 16 and younger.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.olympictheatrearts.org.
The Puffin Sunset Marine Cruise departs from the John Wayne Marina at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday for a two-hour sunset dinner cruise around the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge, where passengers on the 65-foot Glacier Spirit can see tufted puffins, rhinoceros auklets and other sea birds
Tickets are $65, and reservations are required at 360-681-4076.
Other events include the Driftwood Art Show, the Sequim Open Aire Market, the Sequim Studio Tour, the Sequim Wedding Show and the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Show.
A full listing of events, times and locations is available at www.visitsunnysequim.com.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
