The annual summer markets in Eckville will not be returning for its fourth season.
Mandy Gefle and Allison Medin, coordinators of the summer markets, decided to pull the plug this season to make space in their lives for their families and businesses.
Gefle says the timing is “very poor” this summer for her to be able to dedicate the time and attention it takes to coordinate the markets as she juggles her family, career and starting a business.
“We love the group of vendors that we have brought together and we’ve had a lot of fun doing the markets in the past and it is kind of bittersweet for us to announce that we aren’t going forward with them this summer,” said Gefle.
She added the cancellation wasn’t “necessarily” due to lack of vendors.
“We were facing some challenges kind of toward the end of last season as well and so it did have some things to do with the kind of mix of vendors that we were getting and basically just, I feel like, kind of the demand of people attending the markets,” explained Gefle.
Gefle says another factor is the difficulty behind trying to coordinate the timing of the produce.
Gefle says her and Medin are in communication about possibly bringing the markets back for next summer and isn’t ruling out the possibility of a pop-up market.
She says she and Medin have been talking about the different options and how it might be more efficient to spend their time.
“We really appreciate the support and we’ve had a lot of fun doing them up to this point,” said Gefle. “If anybody has any feedback or anything like that going forward we would love to hear it… [and] we just want to thank everybody who’s come out and attended in the past.”
Feedback can be given in the “Eckville Summer Market” Facebook group.
She says it “would be great” if the summer market were to keep going under someone else’s coordination.
Gefle says her and Medin started the summer markets out of no where and anyone can follow the same process to start their own, adding anybody who wants to put on a market can.
“I personally love markets,” Gefle said. “I love that it brings the town together and I love that it gets people out and conversing and connecting one-on-one or in a group.”
Gefle said there is “always a possibility for a market” and that others have run markets in town in the fall and over Christmas.
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