Tallahassee Downtown Marketplace 20th Year Anniversary
Customers in line to purchase the food presented for the market place.
Photos by Lavonte Dukes
By Lavonte Dukes
Outlook Writer
The Tallahassee Downtown Marketplace celebrated its 20th season this year. The event was held from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. The event originally began in March and goes until December 14 at Ponce De Leon Park.
The marketplace features original art, craft, jewelry, farm fresh produce and dairy products, baked goods and live music.
The Tallahassee Marketplace is a diverse venue for people from Tallahassee and visitors to downtown.
Allen Thompson, Director of Downtown Experience, clarified the history of the setting for the event and how it was established.
“About 1995 on Saturday morning markets have become popular across the country in smaller towns, so the Tallahassee Downtown Improvement Authority decided that it would be an opportunity to reestablish the market,” said Thompson.
Thompson said that the theme of the event on Saturday was called October Fall Festival, where they gave away hundreds of free pumpkins to attendees.
For the Fall Festival, there were also decorative Indian corn and gourds to complete the harvest theme.
Marty Monroe, from the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee, talked about what it felt like to be a part of the marketplace.
“We consider it an honor of public service to be here to support the city and its initiatives,” said Monroe.
This is one of the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee main events where they’re exposed to the public and are able to educate people on their program and get people to register to vote.
Brenda Davis, event organizer, shared her experience and how grateful she felt about being a part of the marketplace.
“It’s amazing and it has been about the vendors and the customers that come to make you feel great about what you’re doing here to help the people in the community as well as getting word out about our vendors and their talents,” said Monroe.
Monroe proceeded to say that she wanted people to leave here knowing that we have a lot of talented vendors who really enjoy what they do while providing their services here in the community.
