SEQUIM — Merchants, farmers and others who benefit from the area’s annual Lavender Festival were updated on plans for this year’s event at a Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event Wednesday.
A sequel to a similar strategy session held in March, festival organizers and chamber representatives brainstormed with about 50 in the audience over issues such as parking, merchant sales and advertising for the three-day festival — the North Olympic Peninsula’s best-attended event of its kind — which this year will run July 16-18.
Last year, festival organizers estimated the event drew 30,000 visitors.
Now in its eighth year, the festival still has some kinks to work out, said Scott Nagel, who was hired in late 2003 to replace Pat McCauley as the event’s executive director.
Though it’s been a veritable revenue machine for the tourism industry in part of Clallam County, organizational infighting and disagreements on how the festival should be run surfaced last year between lavender growers — whose farms attract many of the out-of-area visitors — and downtown Sequim merchants who rely on the three-day festivities for a good portion of their summer sales.
Hours to be extended
Some had criticized shopkeepers for limiting their hours of operation. That may be moot this year, said Melinda McMahan, owner of the Crystal Pedlar on East Washington Street.
McMahan said that although it’s not possible to dictate business decisions for others, she believes many downtown retailers and restaurants will offer extended hours for festival-goers.