Olive & Lavender Festival RETURNS MAY

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The Olive & Lavender Festival is returning for its 19th and 17th year to Downtown Paso Robles this May.

"Over the last 19 years, the popularity of this event has proved that people want to learn more about the health benefits and culinary creativity of olives, olive oil, and lavender. A festival makes it fun for the whole family," said the executive director of the Downtown Paso Robles Main Street Association's Olive & Lavender Festival committee, Norma Moye.

For the last three years, the Olive and Lavender festivals have complimented each other into one grand event at the opening of summer. The owners of We Olive, Gary and DeeDee Brown, brought the idea of an olive festival to the Main Street Association 19 years ago to celebrate the healthy properties olives obtain.

A few short years later, Lila Fuson of the Central Coast Lavender Farm had a similar idea for lavender. Both agricultural products bring a variety of health benefits to the table and are proudly grown here in Paso Robles.

The Olive and Lavender Festival will be a great opportunity to discover all the ways olives and lavender can be used. The day will feature olive oil, olive, and lavender vendors both locally and outside the county, featuring their products along with free olive oil tasting and free olive oil ice cream. We Olive will be bringing back its popular and unique olive oil ice cream alongside some lavender specialties. New this year will be a partnership with the Paso Robles Distillery Trail and the California Coast Beer Company. The distillery trail members will be pouring spirits, featuring their Paso Robles Mule Bar using Root Elixirs and local ginger beer.

The Paso Robles Distillery Trail will be popping up with its interactive Paso Mule Bar featuring a Classic Paso Mule and Lavender Mule. Guests will have the opportunity to select their preferred spirit from the offerings to customize their mules. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Paso Robles Main Street Association. The Paso Robles Distillery Trail is the only distillery trail in California, featuring 13 distilleries throughout San Luis Obispo County. There will be a distillery machine display for lavender oil and an olive oil distillery trailer, along with cooking demonstrations using olive oil and culinary lavender. And to learn more on the two products, there will be seminars on the health benefits.

The Paso Robles Main Street Association event will be held Saturday, May 20, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Paso Robles Downtown City Park. The event is free admission with a fee for the Distillery Trail and Cal Coast Beer Co. beverages.

For more information, visit pasoroblesdowntown.org.