SEQUIM — While the Dungeness Valley’s many lavender farms recoup from three days of nonstop visitors, merchants in downtown Sequim are wondering how to rebound from disappointing revenues during the weekend’s Celebrate Lavender Festival.
Early estimates show as many as 35,000 attended the festival venues scattered around the area.
But for the first time in the festival’s seven-year run, its central event — the Street Fair — was moved four blocks north of its original location on Cedar Street.
“I’d say we were down about 50 percent over last year,” said Sue DeShazer, who owns Mad Maggi Boutique on East Washington Street.
Other Washington Street merchants said they were also surprised and dismayed by the drop in business.
The Street Fair was shifted to West Fir Street after property owners Gary and Carol Zellmer complained last January about a lack of access to the parking lot serving their building at North Sequim Avenue and Washington Street.
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The rest of the story appears in the Tuesday Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition.
