The group in charge of Sudbury's farmers market is looking at no longer operating Sundays in favour of holding a mid-week market on York Street.
The Downtown Market Working Group Advisory Panel is exploring a pilot mid-week market, to be held on Thursday evenings between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the municipally owned York Street parking lot during July, August and September in 2017.
The Downtown Market's permanent site is on Elgin Street, where the former train station was located. While sales on Friday and Saturday were good in 2016, Sunday was a different story.
“We’ve seen a decline in Sunday traffic this year and therefore have decided to forgo the Sunday market in favour of a mid-week market on York Street, which can potentially provide exposure to over 30,000 cars passing daily on Paris Street,” said Jeff Huska, chair of the Market Working Group, in a news release.
“More importantly, it will engage a consumer audience which would otherwise travel out of town during the summer weekends. Guests can pick up their fruits and veggies at the Market on their way out to camp for the weekend.”
Meredith Armstrong, the city's manager of tourism and culture, said in the release that 2016 saw an increase of 3,297 customers compared to the year before.
“The increased number and the diversity of the vendors definitely contributed to this higher consumer traffic,” Armstrong is quoted as saying in the release.
The market increased its list of vendors from 34 in its 2015 season to 49 vendors this year. Out of these, 18 were returning vendors, most of whom were seasonal participants.
Vendors and those interested in signing up attended an open house earlier this month with the advisory panel, city staff and Eat Local Sudbury to see what they had in mind for 2017.
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