Lavender Festival Grows in Second Year

HOLLOW ROCK (June 6) — Lavender Kisses Farm hosted the second annual Lavender Festival Saturday. The all-day event saw huge growth from last year’s inaugural effort.

Attendance grew from approximately 1,000 last year to over 2,300 this year.

The festival featured live entertainment, over 65 vendors (up from 38 last year), animal visits and other activities.

Entertainers included harpist Sheila Hart, Hands of Praise, the Camden First Assembly worship team, Jace Hammett, Drake Cannon and Jacob Ervin.

Vendors offered a plethora of crafts, food, drinks and other wares.

Owners Stacie and Larry Overman were assisted by a team of volunteers, mainly fellow members of Camden First Assembly. The majority of funds from parking fees (the only admission charged by the farm) will go to the church.

Stacie told The Banner, “I’m very overwhelmed with the outpouring of our communities and the people that have come, even from out of state, which just blows me away. They say, ‘build it and they will come,’ and that is exactly what we did. We started from nothing and the Lord has just blessed us with this overflow, just an overflow of abundance of people. I am in awe. I have no words. My biggest thing is I just wanted people to feel the peace and the joy and what God’s doing here. He told us to share, and we’re doing everything we can to share our animals and our land.”

More than doubling attendance created some challenges, namely parking and restrooms. Stacie hopes to address those issues so the event can continue to grow in years to come.

She also expressed her disappointment that the lavender fields had not flourished this season to provide the beautiful purple backdrop for the event. She said, “Growing lavender in West Tennessee clay soil is not always easy, and unfortunately Mother Nature doesn’t follow our festival calendar.”