In September of 2019, Penticton's Downtown Community Market, the next door neighbor to the Penticton Farmers Market and a local staple for decades, closed for the season.
It had been a good year for the Saturday-only affair held in the 200 and 300 blocks of Main Street. There were 200-plus vendors. And the organizing body, the Downtown Penticton Association, said there were upwards of 5,000 visitors each time it ran.
Then came COVID, and the market, like so much else, was canceled for 2020. It remained that way in 2021 too.
But now it’s back.
This past Saturday, the Downtown Community Market reappeared after 31 months of dormancy. And for the vendors who set up shop, the general vibe was upbeat.
Veteran vendor and clothier Shawna Guitard and her "Buddha Boutiques" were on the front lines, the northernmost booth of the bunch and the first one guests saw when they ventured in from the Farmer's Market in the 100 block.
"I'm so happy to be back at the very first community market," said Guitard between chatting with customers. "To see everybody walking their dog, supporting local…I'm just thrilled to have it back. I just really missed the vibe, the atmosphere, the music, the kids running around with their faces painted."
Guitard's joy was understandable. The morning has started off rainy and cool but was finally warming up and the streets were busy. And the market had returned from pandemic hiatus. Even better, it hadn’t succumbed to a more recent threat.
Just a few weeks ago, the Downtown Penticton Business Improvement Association -- the organization formerly known as the Downtown Penticton Association -- warned the market could be in jeopardy if city council didn't reconsider a decision on a levy that would help keep the DPBIA in business.
Ultimately a deal was struck near the end of March that all but ensured the DPBIA, and its market, will be alive and kicking for another five years.
"I just want to say it's really great to have the market going again," said a happy DPBIA executive director Lynn Allin Saturday morning.
"This had been an interesting year for us because we just had our levy. With the levy, we had some interesting conversations with our council to allow us to continue with our reverse petition. The reverse petition allows us to continue and makes it easier for our property owners to support us.
"Now we're rebuilding and we're happy that the City decided to work with us and allow us to continue doing the good work we've done for the last 20-odd years."
Maybe so, but Saturday the "rebuilding" was obvious. For one, there were just 50 vendors. That's a quarter of the pre-pandemic number, and a steep enough drop that the market was constrained to just a single block (200) of Main.
Considering all that's transpired though, and the last-minute council decision, the smallish 2022 debut isn’t unexpected.
"Amber (market boss Amber Belcourt) has been doing a lot of work on this," said Allin. "Some of our vendors don’t have the product right now. Some have waited to see if it really happens because they're a little gun shy from the provincial restrictions.
"So now that people see it's really happening and it's exciting down here, I think we'll see a lot of our vendors come back."
According to Belcourt, she'd been approached by five perspective vendors in just the first few hours of Saturday's season opener.
"It'll grow absolutely," she said. "It'll be a nice rebuild year for us, and we're really looking forward to seeing the growth."
Out in the middle of the 200 block was Leslie Marton of South Okanagan Snacks. A Penticton native, Marton's been a market vendor since the mid-2010s and has no intention of leaving it now.
But this year she changed up her focus. She used to peddle handmade signs. Now she's in the snack/beverage biz.
"We started out freeze drying last year," she said, "then this year I brought in wine slushies.
"I bring in the ingredients and develop everything. I actually mix the wine slushies (without the alcohol of course) in very small batches. Same with the freeze drying. I try to get as much local as I can and freeze dry it. It's the first year slushies, and the second year for the freeze dried stuff."
Marton said her new enterprise is "going amazing" and that the first day back at the market was awesome. And she's psyched that she just meet the vendor next door. She says she expects they'll "have great time this summer together."
Later we watched siblings Ryka and Lenix enthusiastically get their faces painted, then ended our tour chatting with potter Carla O'Bee, who just recently opened her own studio (Speckled Row at the Cannery Trade Centre) and called Saturday's market premier "really successful."
The Downtown Community Market will run everySaturday through Sept. 24. For more info, go here.
