Every July, the small Olympic Peninsula town of Sequim swells from its usual population of about 8,000 to something closer to 40,000 over a single weekend. The Sequim Lavender Festival is the reason. What began in 1996 as a modest celebration of local lavender farms has grown into one of the largest events on the north Olympic Peninsula, drawing roughly 30,000 visitors across three days. And woven through the entire weekend is a creative thread that reflects this town's identity as an arts community.
The Juried Art and Craft Show
The festival's art and craft show is its cultural centerpiece. More than 150 booths line the main festival grounds at Carrie Blake Park, showcasing work selected through a juried process that takes place each spring. The show draws exhibitors from across Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, though Sequim and Olympic Peninsula artists make up a significant portion of the roster.
Categories cover a wide range: fine art in oil and watercolor, photography, pottery and ceramics, blown and fused glass, silver and gemstone jewelry, fiber arts including weaving and felting, and turned and carved wood. The selection committee looks for quality of craft, originality, and a cohesive artistic vision. Mass-produced goods are excluded, and everything on display must be the exhibitor's own work.
For visitors, this means three days of browsing handmade art at prices that range from $15 for a small piece of jewelry to several thousand dollars for a major painting or sculpture. For artists, it means access to an audience that is actively looking to buy original work. The concentration of buyers at a single weekend event can account for a meaningful share of an artist's annual income.
Tips for Exhibiting Artists
If you're considering applying, here are practical details from artists who have shown at the festival in past years. Applications typically open in February and close in April. You'll submit five to eight images of your work, a brief artist statement, and booth specifications. Notification comes by mid-May, giving accepted artists about two months to prepare.
Bring weather protection for your booth. Sequim's rain shadow keeps things drier than most of western Washington, but mid-July sun can be intense, and an occasional breeze comes off the Strait. Shade structures are important both for your work and for the comfort of browsers. Bring a card reader; many visitors prefer to pay electronically, and cell service at the park is generally reliable. Price your work clearly and bring a range of price points. The $20-to-$200 range moves fastest at outdoor festivals, but significant pieces sell too, particularly to collectors who attend year after year.
Farm Tours with Art Installations
Several of the participating lavender farms host art installations during the festival weekend. These range from sculpture placed among the lavender rows to temporary murals on barn walls to performance art in the fields. The farm tour circuit is self-guided, and a festival map marks which farms have art programming alongside their lavender offerings.
These installations create some of the most memorable moments of the festival. There is something about encountering a glass sculpture catching sunlight between rows of purple lavender, or watching a painter work at an easel while bees move through the flowers around them, that feels specific to this place and this event. Photographers in particular find the farm tour circuit rewarding, as the combination of art, agriculture, and mountain backdrop produces compositions you simply cannot get elsewhere.
Live Music and Performance
The festival's main stage at Carrie Blake Park hosts live music throughout each day, with a lineup that typically includes folk, acoustic, jazz, and world music acts. The programming is curated to complement the festival's atmosphere rather than overpower it. Between sets, the stage sometimes hosts short talks by artists or demonstrations of creative techniques. Smaller performance spaces at individual farms add to the variety.
Downtown Gallery Openings
The festival's influence extends beyond the farm circuit. Downtown Sequim galleries take advantage of the weekend's increased foot traffic by scheduling special openings and receptions. The events calendar expands to include gallery talks, artist meet-and-greets, and exhibition openings that run parallel to the festival. If you've already explored the farms and the juried show, an evening walk through the gallery district is a natural continuation.
Planning and Logistics
The festival runs Friday through Sunday in mid-July, with the exact dates shifting slightly each year. Parking at Carrie Blake Park fills early, but shuttle service runs from satellite lots around town. Arriving before 10 a.m. gives you the best parking and the coolest temperatures for walking the outdoor show. The Plein Air Festival sometimes overlaps with lavender weekend, adding another layer of creative activity.
Accommodation books out months in advance. If you're planning to attend, secure lodging by April at the latest. Hotels, vacation rentals, and campgrounds within a 20-mile radius all fill. Port Angeles, a 20-minute drive west, offers additional options.
Beyond the Weekend
The lavender festival is a concentrated burst of creative energy, but it draws on an arts infrastructure that operates year-round. The galleries, the community resources, and the network of artists who make Sequim their home are here in every season. The festival is the introduction. What sustains visitors' interest is what they find when they come back in October or February, when the lavender is dormant but the galleries are still open and the creative community is still at work.