SEQUIM — Mayor Walt Schubert on Sunday lauded the relocation of the seventh annual Celebrate Lavender Festival’s Street Fair to Fir Street, saying the event’s success is proof positive.

“Any time you have change you have people that are not happy, but I think it was time to move (the fair) and the best thing to happen for the overall picture,” Schubert said after the festival closed Sunday night.

Schubert said he doubts the street fair will be moved back to Cedar Street on the northern edge of the downtown core, where it had been for several years. The festival had 134 vendors this year, six more than last.

Schubert’s comments came a day after several longtime downtown business owners complained about the street fair pulling business away from the downtown core merchants.

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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.