Over 1,000 people attended the first-ever May Market at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Salem over the weekend.
The Executive Director of the sponsoring Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce Jessiycka Coleman was pleased.
“This weekend was phenomenal for this area and May Market. We had several people run through. We don’t have a true tally right now but we do know we sold about 1000 tickets at the gate. That is only the 13 and up crowd. Anyone 12 and under were free so we don’t have a headcount on them. Very successful overall. We had several people come after attending the event in Flora and Centralia.”
Coleman says it was not planned to have all the events on the same weekend, but she feels they may have actually helped each other in
providing a series of activities.
Coleman reports after the success, they are moving forward with plans for an annual event.
“We have so many ideas already. We are already brainstorming looking into what we can do. With Covid here, we were trying to be cautious in certain areas. But we want to see a lot more family-friendly activities for families on Saturday and making Friday a true date night experience.”
Coleman says several of the vendors have already signed up for next year. She reports about 30 volunteers helped put on the event and more are
welcome to assist next year.
Some of the May Market booths set up under one of the Marion County Fair show arenas.
Up All Night from St. Louis provided the music on the opening night of the May Market.
A donkey also made an appearance on Friday night. Proceeds from the purchase of treats for the donkey went to the Salem Animal Control Center.
