Winter Farmers Market 1 Season 4
Welcome to the first post from Winter Farmers Market headquarters! We just conducted our first “winter” business of the year at WISE Hall this past Saturday with quite a turnout! Might I even be brave enough to declare that aside from maybe the Vancouver Taboo Naughty but Nice Show, which opened at 12noon same day, we were probably hosting one of the more provocative and interesting community events in town. Veggies!!! Tons of them and lots of vendors all together shoulder-to-shoulder that spent all summer apart at different markets.
Even though the thermometers were tipping below 5º C outside, with rain coming down all day, people showed up as chipper as can be for the first Winter Farmers Market of the season! The line-up was there when I came by around twenty-five minutes before the opening bell. Folks came from all over Vancouver - I say this without true survey work, or postal codes to back me up, but I recognized familiar shoppers from our other markets including Kits and West End! True, the first 20 shoppers received $5 of market money as a prize, but still…there was a lovely flow of local peeps up and down Adanac all day. - Thank you all who came by!
Since this is the first update, I thought I’d do a quick survey post about what to expect this year at the Winter Farmers Market.
For you shoppers and volunteers of years past, it is much brighter inside the Hall itself! It’s also more cozy as there are more vendors - 50 is the normal count, which is an impressive amount for a single hall. The Wise Hall looks great inside, really a cool venue for shoppers. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out our homepage before every market to see who is coming, along with where they will be in the Hall. Visit Eatlocal.org, and click on the interactive map graphic. You’ll be surprised how difficult it can be to find vendors when the Hall is full of people. This new interactive map is great - will hopefully help many speed up their shopping :-).
Here’s a look at your Winter Farmers Market staff…well, most of them. I had the pleasure of working with all of the winter staff over the summer, and they are a rock-solid good group of peeps.
You’ll see signs up all around, for instance, a sign on the balcony that lets everyone know when the next market is. Instead of holding the Winter Farmers Market on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month, we do a sequential schedule - every other Saturday (with a few minor holiday exceptions). In case it gets confusing, these signs will be up all season.
More signs… this time pointing shoppers to visit vendors on the stage of WISE Hall.
This first market was a big market for members, who both received discounts at certain vendors as well as two free entries into a raffle prize (shown below). Note the green discount cards, which were taped to vendors inside and out.
Thanks to everyone who came out to shop with us! We look forward to seeing you on the 21st!
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