SEQUIM — The Sequim Lavender Farmers Association has worked out July festival transportation issues with the city and will not pick up passengers for bus tours at Carrie Blake Park, something critics saw as a potential danger.
Instead, buses will pick up tour-goers on the east sidewalk of North Blake Avenue in front of the Water Reclamation Demonstration Park just north of Carrie Blake Park, said Scott Nagel, the new farmers association executive director.
The Sequim Lavender Farmers Association will put on a lavender festival at the same time as the Sequim Lavender Growers Association from July 15-17.
Nagel, who bolted from the growers group earlier this year to join the new lavender farmers group as its chief organizer, updated the City Council on Monday night, sharing the group’s plans.
“Moving to Carrie Blake Park is a fantastic opportunity,” Nagel said of the new lavender association, which earlier this year split from the original Sequim Lavender Growers Association over philosophical and administrative differences.
“After hearing concerns about the tour buses going from the Carrie Blake parking lot, we have found a better space that will provide for efficient and safe transportation to the farms on tour.”
Nagel’s new group is making Carrie Blake Park its home of the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire, dubbing it “Lavender in the Park.”
“While it may have been difficult for the community and others as the lavender farms split several months ago from the organization they founded 15 years ago, we discovered sometimes unfortunate circumstances do lead to new opportunities,” Nagel told the council.
“And in this case, it created the Sequim Lavender Farmers Association — bringing us back to the roots of lavender farming.”
The new group will use the Guy Cole Convention Center along with the Carrie Blake Park grounds and the James Center band shell for live music performances during the festival.
At the same time, about two miles west on Fir Street, the original growers association will put on its festival as planned and in the tradition of the past 14 events celebrating the fragrant purple flower.
The original group will offer self-guided tours of its farms.
The farmers association is planning tour buses to take visitors from Blake Avenue to the pioneering original lavender farms around the Sequim-Dungeness Valley area.
Joint submittal
Permits for the growers association’s Lavender Festival at West Fir Street and the newly formed farmers association’s Sequim Lavender Farms Faire at Carrie Blake Park are conditional upon both organizations working together to make “a joint submittal” showing a shared signage, parking, traffic and pedestrian plan, city officials said.
Nagel said his group has finally completed its transportation plans for the “crucial” farm tour buses.
“These buses transport thousands of people to the world-famous and classic farms — like Purple Haze and Cedarbrook — that are responsible for bringing in more than $3.5 million in economic impact each year, with 10,000 farm tour ticket-buyers that fill every lodging room in the county,” Nagel said.
The parking lot at the reuse park will be used only for waiting and assembling bus tour riders, being closed to park, he said.
A shuttle will run festival-goers from the Bell Creek Plaza/QFC supermarket parking lot off East Washington Street to connect with the lavender festival parking shuttle to prevent too many people from walking on Blake Avenue.
Growers shuttle bus
The Sequim Lavender Growers Association, which is putting on the 15th annual Sequim Lavender Festival, will use the same shuttle bus parking lots it has used in the past — Bell Creek Plaza at QFC supermarket off East Washington Street and the J.C. Penney parking lot at Sequim Village Center south of West Washington Street at South Seventh Avenue.
Nagel said “Lavender in the Park” will have more than 110 booths, two car shows and concerts on two nights.
The Reuse Demonstration Park events will include a bike corral, a Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center exhibit featuring wild birds, with Clallam County Master Gardeners’ tours of gardens.
The new association, Nagel said, has created an Agriculture and Rural Life Program in partnership with Nash’s Organic Produce.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
