Image: Saint John Night Market, Facebook.
The Saint John Night Market is returning uptown this month.
This year’s market will take place every Thursday night starting on June 10 until September from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Greg Cutler, a growth coordinator at the City of Saint John, says this year’s market will look a little different this summer. With neighbouring 91 King Street undergoing major redevelopment, this year’s market will be reconfigured.
“Obviously 91 King is going to be a big change for the night market, but essentially we are going to use the plaza in front of the [City] Market off Germain Street and both the lower portions of both North and South Market Streets,” says Cutler. “It will make for a little horseshoe around the bottom part of the market.”
The city did a call-out for vendors back in April, which Cutler says got a solid response. He says this year will include many returning vendors, such as Sweet Vanilla, which has been at the market since its first year. There will also be new vendors too like Fredericton’s Spicy Boys.
“Thursday evening tends to work pretty well for us because it works into the weekend and there are no other competing markets in that evening so it’s a nice start to the weekend. The vendors seem pretty excited about being back at it,” says Cutler.
Like last year, the market will continue to follow Covid-19 public health guidelines, which limits the things they’re able to do in terms of live entertainment, and other activities that could attract large crowds.
“We’d love to have full bands and different things going on, but with Covid, we do have some limitations. Obviously, we want just high-quality products, but not driving massive crowds all at once,” says Cutler.
“I think this year a lot of our focus is going to be on quality vendors and making sure it’s Covid safe … and hopefully next year with no Covid, we’ll be able to unveil some more plans to make it a little bit bigger.”
After 15 months of living with Covid-19, Cutler says the market will hopefully help provide a little bit of normalcy.
“I think everyone is itching to have a bit of return to normalcy. I think the market will do that. It’s going to be a sport where people can safely get out and get some groceries or some good or some street food,” he says.
“It’s going to be what it’s always been, it’s just a little bit different with Covid and the construction, but I think it’s going to be a solid product and I think people are really going to like it.”
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
