By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver’s new Station Street Market is garnering lots of interest with opening day now less than two weeks away.
The highly anticipated market will feature vendors who locally grow, bake, make or create the products they intend to sell.
In addition to local vendors, they are reaching out to food trucks, buskers and solo musicians to find out their interest and availability to join in throughout the season in the aim of creating a vibrant downtown atmosphere.
Opening day is June 2, and the market will continue every Sunday throughout the summer until September 29, with two exceptions on June 23, and September 22. There will be no market on these dates as they are the Roots and Fruits Festival and Wine Capital Weekend respectively.
Denise Blashko, the Grow Oliver coordinator explained to Oliver town council that there has been lots of great community engagement so far.
They already have around 10 committed vendors for the opening day of the market. They have enough space for 15 to 20 vendors and hope to grow in number as the summer moves along.
Bringing a market to the downtown area was a priority of the Grow Oliver Plan which wants to bring a lively spirit to the downtown. Community members will be able to easily access the vendors who will be set up along the sidewalk of Station St. in between the Oliver Visitor Centre and the Coast Hotel.
They are also seeking communication with businesses on Main Street so they can market collaboratively to “create some energy in the downtown core and have people spend time both on Station St. and on Main St.”
The market will take place on Sunday’s, which will be one of only three local markets to take place on that day of the week. The other two are Summerland and Peachland.
Blashko explained that they still have some things that need to be decided on, the most important ones being the insurance for the vendors and whether they should be members of the BC Farmers Market Association.
To start, the market will not be a member of the BC Farmers Market Association, which among other things means there will be no vendors with alcohol.
Blashko commented on their thoughts around membership in the association, saying that “the difficult part is Interior Health rules and cosmetic rules. You have to really follow the rules and everything has to be 100 per cent homemade and handmade [according to Association rules].”
The 100 per cent homemade condition impacts who can and cannot become a vendor. She explained they have had people reach out who make some of their own products but then “they have one or two other things that are complementary to their business, but technically at BC farmers market you can’t bring those items to the market.”
So to begin with they will not be members, but it is something they will revisit.
“The most difficult piece is insurance for small vendors,” Blashko explained.
She explained that through the Chamber of Commerce’s advocacy for small business they have seen that many are not participating in these markets because “they can’t afford insurance or they literally can’t get it.”
So they still have to work out which direction they want to go for providing the insurance.The decision could involve working with the town and their insurance people, or the chamber and their insurance people to get everything covered.
The market is still looking for vendors. Information, applications and contact information can be found on their website at stationstreetmarket.ca or on their Facebook page “Station Street Market – Oliver”.
The Station Street Market will take place on Sundays from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., in the new grass area along Station Street near the Oliver Visitor Centre. Questions, suggestions, or comments can be sent to [email protected].
