Set to welcome patrons from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., it\u2019s going to be a very special season for the little market that could, which started off life in a parking lot just off Temperance Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be 20 years of magic,\u201d says Councillor Sandra Humfryes, who serves as a liaison between the Market and Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday\u2019s opening will feature music spun by local vinyl historian David Heard, a sold-out complement of vendors, and, perhaps most important to organizers, a Market experience that is free from public health restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are just going to be open, happy, and it is just going to be wonderful,\u201d says Market chair Cathy Williams of Catharina\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cThere\u2019s no prescribed entry point anymore and people can just come into the park from [whatever point] they want. Our vendors are so happy we don\u2019t have to wear masks. They are so happy to be coming back. It has been a tough time for a lot of businesses and coming back is going to be good for a lot of people \u2013 and I hear from a lot of customers that they are just so excited the Market is going to be open again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the last two years, the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market has been a success story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was uncertain until the eleventh hour in the first COVID spring whether the Market would be able to re-open at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not wanting to lose the momentum they had built over the previous 17 years, the Market Board set to work exploring different ways to make the shopping experience a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The model they eventually locked into place not only ensured a safe re-opening that May, but their successful template was borrowed by similar markets across southern Ontario, including the City of Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did what we needed to do to keep the community safe, and keep the vendors safe,\u201d says Market Board member Kris Waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adds Councillor Humfryes: \u201cAnd there was not one case, not one issue, not one problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor me, what stands out is the joy of the Market,\u201d she continues. \u201cI have heard from residents that they had that window of time each Saturday to feel normal, they loved every minute. You don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got until it\u2019s gone and now they know. We had huge turnouts last year, record numbers, and I think turnout is going to be better than ever!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Helping to make that prediction come true will be new vendors joining customer favourites, the return of crafts for kids, a feature that had to be put on the backburner previously due to public health restrictions, live music from the band shell most Saturdays, and a number of special event days, the first one being a celebration of the Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee on the morning of June 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information on the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market, visit: theaurorafarmersmarket.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Brock Weir 20th season of the Aurora Farmers’ Market opens this Saturday morning, May 7, at Town Park. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2022-05-05-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-87D","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 14:14:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F31225&t=Aurora%20Farmers%E2%80%99%20Market%20celebrates%2020%20years%20of%20%E2%80%9CShop%20Local%E2%80%9D&s=100&p[url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F31225&p[images][0]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F05%2F2022-05-05-01.jpg&p[title]=Aurora%20Farmers%E2%80%99%20Market%20celebrates%2020%20years%20of%20%E2%80%9CShop%20Local%E2%80%9D\" "\\"Share")
<\/a>![\"twitter\"](\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" "\\"Share")
<\/a>![\"mail\"](\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" "\\"Share")
<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"