The popularity of Walkerville’s night market has spread to the county. The organizers of the monthly summertime event are set to launch the Kingsville Night Market starting next month.
“We’ve got some big support,” said Teanna Lindsay, a local event planner who spearheaded the night market in Walkerville last summer. The Town of Kingsville and the local restaurant association were on board right away, Lindsay said.
There’s a large community in the county that maybe isn’t travelling into Windsor, she said, so bringing the night market to Kingsville’s charming downtown will draw in those residents as well as tourists and boaters in the area.
The market will run on the second Friday night of each month starting on June 12 in downtown Kingsville. Walkerville’s night market is still scheduled to run on the last Friday of each month starting on May 29 in The Willistead’s parking lot.
The Kingsville night market will have the same feel as Walkerville’s, with roughly 30 local vendors on site, live music, food from local restaurants and a licensed area for drinks. New this year for both night markets is a kid’s corner with crafts.
It also turns out the night market has helped cross-promote other markets in the area, Lindsay said.
And that’s exactly what the night market and seven other local farmers’ markets are hoping to do more of as part of the region’s food tourism strategy.
The farmers’ markets in Amherstburg, downtown Windsor, Ford City, Belle River, Kingsville, Leamington and Riverside plus the two night markets formed a group this year and secured a grant from the provincial government to cross-promote and co-ordinate their events.
The idea is to complement, rather than compete with one another, said Lynette Bain, vice-president of tourism programs and development at Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.
“We want it to be more collaborative,” Bain said.
Ultimately, this collaboration should get Windsor-Essex residents and tourists visiting more than just the nearest farmers’ market, Bain said, thereby increasing the amount of local food they bring home.
They don’t plan to dictate which days of the week each market can operate, Bain said, but the hope is to avoid stepping on toes when each market gets down to scheduling its special events or attractions.
The idea is similar to how local wineries work together to promote themselves as a collective despite being competing businesses, she said.
In the long run, working together will help each farmers’ market fine-tune and define its unique characteristics.
“We almost want to customize the experience each resident gets at each market,” she said.
TWEPI is working on a landing page from its website that will provide a comprehensive event calendar for all eight markets involved along with locations, dates and times of each.
Bain said TWEPI would certainly welcome more local markets to join in the initiative next summer. There’s also talk of developing a passport or market dollars program that could be used at more than one market.
“We really think there’s enough room for a number of (farmers) markets,” Bain said.
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