Duluth Downtown Farmers Market Canceled for Rest of Season
DULUTH, Minn.– On Thursday morning, the Greater Downtown Council called off Duluth’s downtown farmers market for the 2021 summer season.
Some of the reasons include farmers having trouble growing produce from the drought, and not being able to staff both the farms and their stands.
One member of the market says “it’s sad” to hear of the cancellation, as so many people count on it.
“I know a lot of people rely on that too like there’s a lot of local farmers or people who pay to be in the community gardens that rely on selling vegetables there to make up that money that they put into it,” Alayna Thies, a Produce Vendor, said.
For those who work in the community gardens, it has been a struggle to fight the drought.
One farmer in particular says he has been using about 32 gallons of water a day which is way more than normal to maintain his produce.
“This is the driest I’ve seen it, this is absolutely the driest, we normally get rain but not this year,” Gordon Oman, a local farmer said.
Another factor that plays into the cancellation is the lack of business and foot traffic that has been seen in downtown Duluth since the end of the pandemic.
The Marketing and Events Coordinator of the Greater Downtown Council, Shanda Hanson, says now is a good time to brainstorm how to get commerce firing at all cylinders again.
“Everybody seems to be supportive of figuring out the next way to bring people together downtown Duluth, that seems to be the consensus, is just figuring out a better event, either in 2022 or before then, just to bring people together downtown,” Hanson said.
She says whether its a farmers or craft vendors market, or a new event, the key to solving this is just to try to bring vibrancy back to downtown Duluth.
The GDC will still have events throughout the remainder of the season like Movies in the Park, and the September Slam Golf event.
The Duluth Farmers Market on 1324 E 3rd Street is still operating normally, to find out more about their hours of operation, click here.
