The Lompoc Valley Flower Festival celebrates the Santa Barbara County flower fields in full bloom each June in downtown Lompoc, a small city 60 miles north of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley corridor. The Lompoc Valley is one of the world's premier flower seed-producing regions — commercial growers cultivate fields of larkspur, sweet peas, statice, and marigolds that stretch to the Pacific horizon, creating a tapestry of color visible from the highway in late spring and early summer. The festival grounds in downtown Lompoc host a community parade down Ocean Avenue, a carnival with rides, a juried fine art show, a craft vendor fair, cooking demonstrations featuring local …