Salina's new Farm and Art Market Downtown sees early success

A new adventure in downtown Salina began last month, and it's already a success.

The Farm and Art Market Downtown takes place from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. every Saturday in the parking lot of the City Lights Stage on the southwest corner of Santa Fe Avenue and Ash Street.

Leslie Bishop, executive director for Salina Downtown Inc., said she had been thinking about bringing an outdoor market to the downtown area since she began working for the organization. With the addition of this stage in recent years, this was a good time to get started.

"The location of where the market is now just seemed like a logical place to start a farm and art market," Bishop said.

How did the Farm and Art Market Downtown get started?

Bishop said after several years of having the idea for a market, Salina Downtown was able in late 2023 to get a team of business owners and other stakeholders together to help plan the logistics of it.

"(They) agreed to help be a part of the planning if we didn't call it a committee," Bishop said. "We just put our heads together and decided how we wanted it to work."

Bishop said she reached out to another organization, Salina Farmer's Market, which has been an ongoing market for several years, to see if there was any way to combine the efforts of both and work together, but that didn't work out.

"Even though we couldn't work with them, we felt Salina was large enough to support two markets on a Saturday, so we just moved forward with it," Bishop said.

After getting approval from the city of Salina, the Farm and Art Market opened on May 18.

What kind of vendors are at the Farm and Art Market Downtown?

Though it is only a few weeks old, the Farm and Art Market Downtown has already found success from vendors and attendees.

Bishop said the number of vendors has grown each week, from 12 that first Saturday to 16 the second and as of writing, up to 22 expected for the first Saturday in June.

Those vendors span a variety of products, ranging from produce and meats to honey and baked goods — and even a vendor who sells handmade jewelry.

Salina Downtown decided it wanted to keep things fairly local with this market, so requires all products sold to be grown, raised or made in Kansas.

"We have a really great tiered, vendor setup, so vendors have the choice of how often they want to come," Bishop said. "(We'll) have vendors that will come every Saturday, some that will come 10-20 (times throughout the summer) and others that will come under 10."

Bishops said one of the great things about City Lights Stage parking lot is that it is large enough to house many vendors and visitors.

"We do have room to grow," Bishop said.

The Farm and Art Market is still accepting applications for vendors through the Salina Downtown website, www.salinadowntown.org/farmartmarket. In addition to the application, the website also has a link to rules and regulations for vendors.

Farm and Art Market Downtown open every Saturday until October

As the Farm and Art Market continues to grow, Bishop said she hopes more people from the community will find time to make it downtown to see it for themselves.

In addition to being able to buy local produce, meat, food and art, the market also has activities for guests including such things as a kids zone, yoga once a month, live music, dancing performances and more.

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Bishop said she is proud of the success and is excited to see where this market goes, saying she knew as vendors were setting up that first Saturday they had made the right decision.

"I just looked out and (decided) this is how this parking lot should look on a Saturday," Bishop said.

The market will run until Oct. 19, before closing down for the winter months with plans to reopen in spring 2025.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina downtown Farm and Art Market sees success in first weeks