Photo by Stephen MacGillivray CITY HALL MARKET: A new outdoor market has opened up in front of City Hall on Thursday evenings. The tin can planes of Ray Boone seem to hover around the fountain.

New market set to grow

With more than 20 of a possible 42 merchants set-up for business, Fredericton's newest open-air market started slowly but surely on its first night of business on Thursday.

The Downtown Farmer's Markey, based in City Hall's Phoenix Square, was a welcome event for many of the merchants involved, selling everything from wood-working to bouquets of fresh flowers.

Jason and Ruth Merrett ere selling the spoils of their Mazzerole Settlement business and getting a chance to keep in touch with their customer base, literally.

The pair, who own Merrett Farms, can brush up on th wants and needs of the people who buy their flowers face-to-face at the Thursday night market.

"We sell mostly at the wholesale level," said Ruth Merrett as she brushed away a piece of hair which had blown across her face in the summer breeze under her Phoenix Square canopy.

"It's nice to have the option to go directly to the consumer," Merritt said.

Mom and daughter team Diane and Laurel Peacock, who run Lavish Soaps, both enjoy going to the Boyce Farmer's Market to meet their customers, so they jumped at the chance to get involved in a second market.

"We get a lot more feedback and a good idea of what people like," said Laurel Peacock as she arranged the table display of fragrant bath salts and soaps.

Marketing Manager Barb Arsenault of the Downtown Fredericton Business Network, responsible for the conception of the 4-9 p.m. weekly, seasonal market, is a great way to get tourists and residents into the downtown in the evening.

The market could be expanded further down the sidewalk alongside City Hall on York Street and may be able to use some of the space behind the hall as more vendors sign up, she said.

Although the focus is on locally made and locally grown products, there were not many proces farmers at Thursday's opening. But within the next few weeks, when fruits and vegetables are being harvested, almost half the square will be filled with produce stands, she said.

"From a tourism perspective this is a big bonus," aded Fredericton's tourism co-ordinator David Seabrook. He said Thursday evenings are going to belong to downtown with Capital Learning Quests, the Casemate Craft Shops, the Summer Concert Series and the market.

"It all fits in with our strategy of getting tourists off the new highway and convincing them to stay for an extra night or two," he said. "This (the market) is a nice piece to the puzzle."