Richard DeSarra
Hey RCA Members:
Who wants to run this fun event?
Contact Evan at the Public Market and let me know you stepped forward.
Hello from the City of Rochester Public Market! For those of you who participated in our inaugural Halloween at the Market event in 2016, you surely remember it. Despite the lousy weather and the fact we hadn't done this event before, we had a crowd upwards of 2,500, at least three times what we expected.
This made for a hectic, hang-on-for-dear-life, adjust-on-the-fly night, but it surely proved there is a demand for a family-friendly Halloween event at which families can not only have a bonus dress-up, candy-collecting opportunity, but also a chance to interface with community organizations like yours.
We received some fantastic feedback from the participants from last fall, and are going full steam ahead for a second Halloween At the Market event, this year on Sunday, October 29 from 4-7 p.m.
And we are planning the same overall concept, with the needed tweaks--we'll have community organizations assigned to 10' x 30' outdoor/covered vending stalls; we'll ask those organizations to come up with some creative "sing for your supper" engaging activities that make it so that community organizations can get information to the families--in addition to further filling their treat bags!
This goal was a challenge for many organizations I know last year because of the crush of attendees overwhelming us, but this year we'll be ready! In addition, with the opening of the new outdoor, covered "D" Shed (a replica of an original shed on the Market from 1905-1963), we have 46 new outdoor spaces! This means we could either spread everyone out, and/or accommodate more organizations and attendees more comfortably.
We were overwhelmed by the community's participation as much as we were the crowds. We had almost 60 organizations step up to participate in this grand experiment!
Like last year, we'll have other Halloweeny activities, food stands open, hayrides, pumpkins, etc. etc. And like last year, there is no charge to the community organizations to participate--you just have to provide tables, whatever other "stuff" you need (including extension cords--electricity is available!)-- *and* the goodies. Although given the crowd size we expect, we are working now to supplement the goodies you bring!
With all this said--please let me know if you'd like to reserve a stall/stalls for the 2017 Halloween at the Market event! Much more information coming soon!
Evan M. Lowenstein
Communications and Special Events/Projects
City of Rochester Public Market
280 N. Union Street
Rochester, NY 14609
585.428.7282; 585.820.4068 mobile
Evan.Lo...@cityofrochester.gov