With temperatures rising and skies beginning to clear, the Trail and District Chamber of Commerce is beginning to turn its attention towards summer activities in the valley.
The first Friday in June will see the return of the Chamber sponsored, Trail market on the Esplanade, which saw considerable activity over the warmer months last year.
“It starts Friday, June 6, and will run every second Friday after that until the end of October,” said Norm Casler, Chamber executive director. “We’ve got some plans, some new vendors and we’ve got a goal of bringing in more live entertainment. We’ll judge as we go.”
Casler said that there wasn’t really much that they were considering changing too dramatically because of the success of the market last year.
“We averaged over 50 vendors per market last year and had 125 different vendors in total over the summer,” Casler said. “It’s a great place to meet with people, buy lunch and walk around. We had good vendors last year that seemed to have products that people wanted, it’s really been successful.”
Last year’s markets drew over 5,000 visitors to peruse the variety of fresh produce, clothing, jewelry, crafts, pottery, food and beverages available along the Esplanade with a number of vendors and visitors saying that it was one of the best markets in the area.
Casler says he wants to continue to urge the downtown business community to embrace the summer market and get involved to whatever extent possible.
“Have sidewalk sales, open a booth if they can. I realize that many don’t have a lot of staff and can’t close up shop to move to the market but there’s room for opportunity for everyone,” he said. “A promotion is a promotion. Commerce is about money moving around and many of the vendors are primarily from around here. If they make money they’re going to spend money. This has become a highlight for visitors, a showcase for the community. It’s good for everybody.”