Get your Lavender in the Village fix in a kit
People can fill out a form on the website to receive an email as soon as kits are available for purchase
Lavender in the Village draws thousands of people to the Village of Los Ranchos each year.
This year eventgoers will not be able to browse vendor booths but they can still purchase products from some vendors that participate in the festival each year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic health order large gatherings are not allowed so the festival had to be postponed. So the Lavender in the Village board of directors came up with Lavender Festival Survival Kits that include several lavender products. They can be purchased on the Lavender in the Village website at lavenderinthevillage.org.
“The idea was to be able to keep the Lavender Fest spirit alive for this year that we’re having to take off,” said Katie Snapp, secretary of the Lavender in the Village board of directors. “And we knew that we could only do that with a certain amount of limitations so we did it with a couple of angles. We wanted to have some of our key vendors. We couldn’t have all of 120-130 vendors participate in any way but we could have those that have prime agricultural and lavender related products participate in a way where they contributed to something that we could get into the hands of folks that love lavender and love going to the festival anyway.”
The first survival kit sold out in 24 hours. The kit included lavender salve from Bluefly Farms, lavender body cream from For the Love of Lavender, a lavender soap from Lola Jeanne Lavender Farm, a lavender facial mist from Santa Fe Lavender and lavender black ice sugar scrub from The Lavender Farm.
A second kit, with a more culinary and agricultural theme, is being put together and plans for other kits also are in the works.
“The concept was let’s go get it in their hands, let’s help some of the vendors participate, let’s help the lavender nonprofits stay a little bit alive and let’s get people out and driving around in their cars to get them at least come and pick it up even if they won’t be able to mill around any sort of a festival,” Snapp said. “We thought the most fair way was to be able to pull out the vendors that had the most critical ties to our mission which is agricultural related.”
People can fill out a form on the website to receive an email as soon as kits are available for purchase. Customers can also add items to their kits including bee house kits from Rio Grande
Community Farm and lavender face masks from Yoga by Lena. The website includes links that direct people to the personalized websites of vendors that traditionally sell at the festival each year and rely on the event to survive.
“It’s a mixed bag right now with small businesses some have a felt a lot of love from local communities and been able to sustain with online orders,” said Dean Strober of Blue River Productions that organizes the festival. “Some of the smaller businesses might not have the same internet awareness or may not have the same brand recognition. They may not have that component in place. They’re just struggling during these times. There’s a lot of businesses that need the festivals and the markets. This kit program has been a way where Lavender in the Village can still serve as that conduit between the consumer and very small business.”