Arkansas Lavender Festival

The Arkansas Lavender Festival at Lake Banoe Lavender Farm sits on a property 20 minutes west of Hot Springs on Highway 70, just past Bonnerdale, in a part of the Ouachita Mountains where the road narrows and the landscape shifts from tourist infrastructure to working rural land. Lake Banoe Lavender Farm, which has been in the same family for 95 years, grows more than 3,000 lavender plants across its hillside fields, cultivated for oil extraction and festival use. Owner and festival producer Denny Nooner, who calls the farm “the most dramatic and beautiful location for any festival,” has no rival claim within 500 miles for a lavender festival of this scale. The event runs Friday through Sunday in mid-June, with the farm’s private lake serving as the centerpiece for vendor placement, live music, and lakeside dining. Confirm 2026 dates and hours at lakebanoe.com before travel.

The festival schedule runs Friday evenings from around 4 PM to 9 PM, Saturdays from 9 AM to 6 PM, and Sundays from 9 AM to 3 PM, based on the 2024 format. All the music, food, and vendor booths are positioned lakeside on the banks of Lake Banoe, with the lavender fields and sunflower acreage extending up the hillside behind them. In 2024, local jazz and blues groups performed in extended evening sets on Friday and Saturday, including Arkansas’s own Chad Marshall Band alongside New Orleans-based performers. The event welcomed more than 3,000 attendees at its 2023 edition. Vendor coverage spans about 24 booths around the lake plus additional pavilion space, with 10 booths specifically reserved for artists from the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance.

## What the Festival Covers

Beyond the music and market, the farm’s programming includes guided lavender field tours showing the cultivation and oil-extraction process firsthand, a sunflower field for self-guided photography and pick-your-own blooms, health and wellness seminars on lavender’s applications in aromatherapy, nutrition, and topical use, and demonstrations of the distillation process using the farm’s own lavender oil. Lake Banoe Botanicals, the farm’s product line, offers lavender oil, soaps, bath products, culinary lavender, and beauty items exclusively sourced from the property’s harvest.

The farm also operates RV camping sites, both hook-up and boondocking, for attendees who want to stay on the property through the full festival weekend. The lake setting gives the camping a genuinely unusual character: you’re sleeping on a working lavender farm with a private lake view, well inside the Ouachita National Forest corridor.

> Quick Tips
> – Lake Banoe Lavender Farm: 2723 Hwy. 70, Glenwood, AR 71943. Phone: 870-828-9413.
> – This is a private property event. Come prepared for uneven terrain, outdoor conditions, and limited cell service in this part of the Ouachita Mountains.
> – Bring cash for vendors who don’t take cards. Several booth operators at past editions have been cash-only.
> – June at this elevation in the Ouachitas typically sees highs in the mid-to-upper 80s with some humidity. Early morning and evening are considerably more comfortable. Sunscreen is essential for the open-field sessions.
> – Dogs on leash are welcome on the farm property; confirm with organizers before arrival.

## For Families

The sunflower field is the most family-oriented component of the festival. Children who have never seen a full-scale flower field tend to respond to it with more enthusiasm than any organized kids’ activity, and the self-pick element gives them agency in the experience. The lakeside vendor loop is compact and manageable for strollers. The music sets run in the evening on Friday and Saturday, making the festival’s opening and closing hours the most relaxed times for younger children.

## Hot Springs and the Water Beyond

Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine, both within 20 minutes of Hot Springs, offer some of the most approachable freshwater recreation in central Arkansas: boat ramps, marinas, kayak rentals, and a summer calendar of waterfront activity that pairs naturally with a festival weekend. A highly rated option near Hot Springs on Lake.com is the historic home near downtown Hot Springs — browse the full selection at Lake.com to find the property that fits your group best for a Ouachita Mountain weekend.