Second annual Sunflower Festival runs through Sept. 14
Published 11:17 am Tuesday, August 19, 2025
The Snoqualmie Valley Sunflower Festival has entered its second year and is well on its way to becoming the Valley’s version of the tulip festival.
The festival is led by the Carnation Chamber of Commerce, specifically local farmers Erin Barzen and Stacey Smith. From Aug. 14 to Sept. 14, guests are encouraged to visit dozens of farms across the Snoqualmie Valley.
“It’s really to help introduce both our local communities, as well as visitors — ‘Hey, come for the sunflower festival, now come back for your pumpkins, come back for your apples,’” Barzen said. “Just to help bring more awareness to all that we have to offer.”
On Sept. 6 and 7, there will be special celebration days: Sunflower Saturday in Carnation and Sunflower Sunday in Duvall.
Sunflower Saturday will include a vendor village, children’s activities and a scavenger hunt. Carnation businesses will also have specials, like flash sunflower tattoos at Carnation Tattoo Co. or sunflower-themed food specials at restaurants.
Sunflower Sunday will be held at Muddy Boots farm on the north end of Duvall and will have similar activities. The farm will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the vendor village, with 27 vendors, will be open until 6 p.m.
Muddy Boots is dog-friendly, has lots of parking and will be selling its fresh roasted sweet corn with three types of butter.
An interactive map shows the Valley’s sunflower fields, as well as many other local farms and farmstands that are open to the public. Nine of the locations have sunflowers available for purchase, and seven of them have sunflower fields.
The festival is set up to be a “choose your own adventure” experience, Smith and Barzen said, with a few special events thrown in throughout the month to help guide people along.
This year, the effort is a partnership with the Duvall Chamber of Commerce and the North Bend Downtown Foundation. As the festival continues to grow, its leaders are open to adding more partners throughout the Valley.
The event is entirely organized and run by volunteers, whom Barzen and Smith are very grateful to. Those interested in lending a hand can fill out an application to volunteer for the Sunflower Festival, as well as various other seasonal Carnation events.
Additionally, the website hosts a sponsorship application. The festival has sponsorship opportunities, with levels starting at $100. There is also an opportunity for businesses to sponsor the event through an in-kind donation of volunteer hours.
The festival’s 2025 mission is ““Growing Together and Deepening Roots: Cultivating appreciation of farming, arts and culture of the Snoqualmie Valley through a celebration of sunflowers.” This statement was crafted with intention, Barzen said.
“We got a lot of input from a lot of different folks on that, and that really clarified, why are we doing what we’re doing?” she said.
The Carnation Chamber is community-minded, Barzen said. In addition to supporting the businesses themselves, chamber members want to support the “whole economic ecosystem,” which farms are an integral part of.
“That’s a value we hold. It’s really important to what we’re doing,” she said. “We’re educating about our agricultural history and our agricultural future. We’re doing something fun and artistic. So there’s arts, there’s education, there’s agricultural agritourism. All of that is part of it, and hopefully contributing to future folks who are going to carry this on.”
Check it out
The festival runs through Sept. 14. To see all of the participating farms, visit carnationchamber.org/snoqualmie-valley-sunflower-festival. Before visiting a farm, guests are encouraged to visit its website or social media pages for information on hours, ticketing and parking. Pricing varies between the farms, depending on activities provided.
