Farmers market opens in Festival Square for another summer

By Lethbridge Herald on July 5, 2023.

Residents take advantage of the Downtown Farmers’ Market season kick off Wednesday at Festival Square. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Wednesday saw the return of the Downtown Lethbridge Farmers’ Market presented by Lethbridge and District Exhibition in partnership with Downtown Lethbridge BRZ. 

Taking place in Festival Square, the market will run every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2:00 pm., throughout the summer until Sept. 6. 

Lethbridge and District Exhibition CEO, Mike Warkentin said the Downtown Lethbridge Farmers’ Market gives the Ex the opportunity to connect with the city’s downtown and its community. 

“This gives us the opportunity to get off campus, which we don’t have a lot of opportunity to do, to contribute to the downtown core. It’s our way of supporting the revitalization of downtown and as you can see the community loves the downtown market,” said Warkentin. 

He said they are thrilled to be in Festival Square as it is a fantastic venue for this type of event. 

“This particular market, depending on the week throughout the summer, there will be between 20 to 30 markets. Over the course of the year, we deal with 200 or so independent Farmers’ Market vendors, for whom this is their opportunity to show their wares, to show what they’ve created, to sample that food product,” said Warkentin. 

He said when it comes to vendors taking advantage of both Farmers’ Markets offered by the Lethbridge and District Exhibition, there is some crossover. 

“We do see, specifically on some of the produce vendors, we see some crossover. We do see some of our other vendors go to both markets. It is a different clientele down here than who go to the Saturday market,” said Warkentin. 

He said that even though there is probably a crossover in clientele as well, is the business crowd that wants to stop in at their Downtown Farmers’ Market on their lunch break and grab something to eat, whereas on Saturday it is more of an event. 

Warkentin said Downtown Lethbridge BRZ has been very accommodating when it comes to lending them the space for the market. 

“The BRZ has been phenomenal partners, whether it was through COVID or renovations here at Festival Square, they have been exceptionally accommodating. We come, we take over their square every Wednesday throughout the Summer months for 10 weeks and we couldn’t ask for better partners to help showcase Lethbridge and showcase southern Alberta and to showcase the Downtown core,” said Warkentin. 

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