SEQUIM — With plenty of photo-ops, treats, music and countless bundles of the popular plant available, Sequim Lavender Weekend will offer something for everyone.
From Friday through Sunday, thousands of people are expected to descend across the Sequim area to celebrate the 29th year of the Lavender Festival and ongoing events connected to the weekend.
For husband and wife Joe Regalia and Susie Park, this will be their first summer as owners of a lavender farm. They purchased one of Sequim’s original lavender farms, Olympic Lavender, formerly In Bloom, and renamed the space at 1526 Marine Drive in Sequim as “Lit Lavender.”
The name has two meanings — the first for the slang term “lit,” as in “cool” or “awesome,” Regalia said, and it’s also a nod to the thousands of lights they’ve placed along the fields.
Regalia, a law professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas during the school year, said they purchased the farm around Christmas. In Bloom’s owners continue to operate an online store for their lavender products from a separate farm.
The couple said they started another business, Round Mountain Retreat, a 60-acre site in Idaho, about four years ago and wanted to build on that success.
Regalia said he first learned of Sequim while on a local backpacking trip and recalled telling himself, “Someday, I’m going to move here.”
Years later, they found the lavender farm and fell in love, he said.
“It’s a dream I didn’t know I had, but I can see myself doing this until I’m much older,” said Park, a former government employee.
The couple said they wanted to have a family-friendly approach to their farm with standards such as U-cut lavender along with a new outdoor nine-hole mini-golf course, claw machines with plush animals and mystery boxes of lavender products, a scavenger hunt and outdoor games.
Following new Clallam County regulations for farm stores and farms, Regalia said they met with county planners for hours and were able to receive the OK to move forward.
For the weekend, Regalia’s family will bring barbecue and the farm will host live music.
Farms, events
Lit Lavender is one of about 20 lavender farms that will be open this weekend and summer, with some open year-round.
For Sequim Lavender Weekend, Purple Haze Lavender Farm, 180 Bell Bottom Lane, charges $5 admission per day, and Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm, 3832 Sequim-Dungeness Way, $10 for all three days, with children 12 and younger free.
Other farms are free to visit. Purple Haze and Jardin du Soleil are free to visit the remainder of their regular hours.
This year, a few farms are no longer open to the public, including Fleurish Lavender of Lost Mountain, Gnomelicious and In Bloom. However, both Fleurish and In Bloom continue to operate an online shop. Some farms could not be reached to update hours or contact information for this story.
Another staple of Lavender Weekend, the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club Show, seems to be on hold this year. The group’s website states: “Our club has historically presented a spectacular quilt show each year in July during the Sequim Lavender Festival Weekend. We are in the process of looking at how, where and when we hold our Quilt Shows, resulting in no show for 2025. We will post information as soon as our next show is planned.”
A few other events are continuing, though, including the free Victor’s Barn Dance at Victor’s Lavender Farm, 3743 Old Olympic Highway, at 7 p.m. Friday, with The Backwood Hucksters, and 7 p.m. Saturday with Sound Advice.
Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., will host “Lavender Legacies,” a lavender melodrama, at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday, with tickets available at olympictheatrearts.org and at the door.
Ghostlight Productions will offer “The Lion King Jr.” at the Sequim High School Auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave., starting at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available at ghostlightwa.org and at the door.
The Sequim Farmers & Artisans Market will be open at the Sequim Civic Center, 152 W. Cedar St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
The First Friday Art Walk also shifted to include another day this month from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday with self-guided tours of art galleries and venues in Sequim.
Lavender Festival
For the 29th year, the Sequim Lavender Festival will celebrate lavender at many local farms and in Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave., for Lavender Festival in the Park.
With more than 100 vendors of lavender and handcrafted items along with food and music, they’ll be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The event is put on for free by the Sequim Lavender Growers Association (SLGA), which includes Lavenderstock’s live music all three days and Black Diamond Junction headlining at 7 p.m. Saturday on the James Center for Performing Arts’ bandshell stage.
Lavender in the Park
Friday
11 a.m. — opening ceremony
11:45 a.m. — Queens and Aces
1 p.m. — Bram Brata Steel Drums
2:15 p.m. — Deadwood Revival
3:45 p.m. — Desert Moondogs
5:30 p.m. — Bread and Gravy
Saturday
11 a.m. — Ghostlight Productions’ preview of “The Lion King Jr.”
Noon — Chica Marimba
1:45 p.m. — Deseo Carmin
3:15 p.m. — Free Rangers
5 p.m. — Reckless Dove
7 p.m. — Black Diamond Junction
Sunday
10:30 a.m. — Nightingale
11:45 a.m. — WhatEverly Bros
1 p.m. — Sarah Shea
2:30 p.m. — Farmstrong
3:45 p.m. — Backwoods Hucksters
Parking for Lavender Festival in the Park is available at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 N. Blake Ave., and Olympic View Church, 503 N. Brown Road, starting at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday and after 11 a.m. Sunday. Free parking also is available along city streets.
For more about Sequim lavender farms, visit sequimlavenderweekend.com.
________
Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
