Downtown farmers' market setting records

CEDAR RAPIDS - The downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers' Market is definitely drawing a crowd this year,  In fact, the market on Saturday, July 2

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set an all time attendance record of 18,958.

And a spokesperson with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District said the average attendance at the bi-weekly downtown summer event is running at about 15,000 people per session.  That's up 50 percent over the average attendance in 2010.

But that success is raising the question--is it too much of a good thing?  Could larger crowds make the downtown street market experience more of a hassle than a pleasure?

Vendors probably aren't the ones who would complain about overflow crowds at the downtown event.  For instance Mark Armstrong, who owns Acoustic Farms near Springville, said he's sold an average of 160 to 180 bags of cheese curds each time at the Cedar Rapids downtown events.  That dwarfs the kind of business he sees at other farmers' markets with the 5,000 to 7,000 attendees at Iowa City running a distant second.

But he can only produce so much from his small herd of dairy cattle and he routinely runs out of cheese early every time he sells in downtown Cedar Rapids.

“We're selling curds and cheese just as fast as we can take the money.  People (last Saturday) were standing in line 8-10 deep and pulling out their $6.00 and waiving them for a bag of curds.  It was amazing,” Armstrong said.

Another downtown worker who was there last Saturday didn't see a problem with handling a record crowd.  Coffee shop worker Sheaffer Wright said “we were really busy, but it wasn't anything too chaotic.  I think the more the merrier.”

Downtown District leaders said they heard a few grumbles about the crowding at the farmers' market in 2010-so they made some changes then.  Organizers shifted vendors to create more space, re-arranged the stage area and even added part of another city street to the market area.

Downtown District director Doug Neumann said those kind of “tweaks” will probably happen again next summer based on the attendance this year.

“We'll continue to try to program Greene Square Park,” Neumann said adding “the park's not crowded yet and there's lots of room there.  We'll make some subtle changes to give people just a little bit more room.”

As for the vendors, cheese-maker Armstrong said he'd like more time to visit with buyers and tell them the story of his farm.  But it's also a business and big crowds at the Cedar Rapids downtown market means selling more cheese.

Downtown District leaders also said while attendance is up from an average of 10,000 per event in 2010 to 15,000 this year they don't expect to keep up the pace.  The biggest days for the downtown market is traditionally opening day and the 4

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of July weekend.  Still, organizers are looking for a significant increase in 2011 compared to 2010.