Chelsea Self / Post Independent
Glenwood’s Downtown Market & Music Series has begun a straw poll that asks attendees their thoughts on possibly moving the Tuesday tradition to Seventh Street.
Event organizer Cindy Svatos said that no one at the city had asked her to relocate the market from Centennial Park at the corner of Grand Avenue and Ninth Street to Seventh.
However, with the future “festival street” nearing initial completion, Svatos could not help but wonder if it was only a matter of time before the question did arise.
“I kind of keep feeling like that could be in our future. We are just getting a feel for what people think,” Svatos explained of the informal survey. “I don’t want to make it sound like we are already gathering ammunition to say no.”
However, the preliminary consensus among organizers, vendors and attendees thus far has been to keep the market and music series in its home of 14 seasons, Centennial Park.
One issue concerning a potential move to Seventh Street and under the Grand Avenue Bridge is visibility and accessibility for vendors and market attendees.
“People love this park. …They see us and there is a lot of parking, even for the vendors,” Svatos said, pointing at the parking garage located just footsteps away at Ninth and Cooper. “Once you start over the bridge you are not going to turn back.”
Massage therapist Victoria Pennock with Moon & Stars Massage called Centennial Park a “perfect” spot for the market and the 200 to 300 people who visit its produce stands, food vendors and artisans between 4 – 8 p.m. on Tuesdays throughout the summer.
For Pennock, the park’s shade, especially when temperatures soar into the 90s, was crucial.
“If they did it under the bridge there would be shade, but the people that come to this enjoy the trees,” Pennock said. “I think it is a lot more organic over here.”
With Seventh Street’s construction timeline extending through August, the Downtown Market will not change locations anytime soon — if ever.
And, while the majority of market goers so far have supported keeping the market in Centennial Park, there were a few vendors who preferred the idea of relocating it to Seventh Street.
“I actually like the idea of it moving down to Seventh Street. I think down there kind of draws in a few more people with the businesses and the restaurants,” Till & Company Coffee owner Wyatt Till said as he set up his booth Tuesday afternoon.
Till thought that the market relocating to Seventh Street would serve as a win-win for vendors like himself, but also for the numerous downtown businesses, particularly on a Tuesday.
“It is almost advertising for them and advertising for us,” added Till.
With 15 artists performing over the course of the market series’ 15 weeks, one of those musicians – Chris Bank – enjoyed Centennial’s intimate feel and open space.
“The audience here, I don’t know if you would get this same feeling down there,” said Bank, who has played at the Tuesday market for a decade. “For the market, I would think they would want to have it in a park.”
