The Commercial Street Night Market will liven up Nanaimo’s downtown streets for one more evening this summer.
The final night market of the season will be held tonight, Aug. 30. The initiative began on the first day of summer in June and has been a hit, said Kim Smythe, CEO of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce, which organized the markets.
“Really happy with the numbers that have shown up and more so, happy with the smiles that it’s put on everybody’s faces down there,” Smythe said. “That’s been quite remarkable, the vibe down there. It’s been warm and friendly and just appealing, so people want to come back and do it again.”
He said the night markets were embraced with a “fantastic” response from businesses.
“They had a little trepidation going into it, wondering, is this going to work,” said Smythe, adding that some past initiatives downtown hadn’t always met with success.
The first night market drew 6,000 people, the chamber estimates, and 4,000-5,000 subsequently.
Smythe said one vendor reported that he made enough that first night to make the whole summer of markets worth his while.
“The vendors are all extremely happy,” Smythe said. “We might have one or two who missed the mark with a product or merchandising or something like that; that’s always going to be the case, but for the most part, they’re totally stoked.”
The markets were a highlight for tourists who happened upon them – “thankfully,” said Smythe.
“There’s been some real problems for tourism downtown this year. The crime element of course has expanded and a lot of the businesses have felt the impact of that.”
Smythe said the crew he was able to pull together to organize the market learned quickly and well how to make it successful, and worked hard and worked together. He said in a couple of weeks, the chamber will sit down with the city to go over logistics, security and planning for 2019, and won’t mess much with the formula.
Tonight’s final market, 5-9 p.m., will feature juggler and street entertainer Jake West at 7 p.m., followed by the Nanaimo International Jazz Festival band at 8 p.m.
“I hope people take advantage of the last one this week,” Smythe said.
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