PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Farmers Market will return to Laurel Street for one day only on Saturday as part of Heritage Weekend and the unwrapping of the statues of the Avenue of the People.
The street will be closed between First and Front streets from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., said Barbara Frederick, executive director of the Port Angeles Downtown Association.
“Most of the vendors are excited at the opportunity to show our face down there,” said Brian Barrick, farmers market manager.
The Saturday market has operated in the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot since December 2005, when the Port Angeles City Council declined to extend a conditional use permit for the market to continue to use Laurel Street.
Some downtown business owners contended then that closing one block of Laurel Street on Saturdays made it more difficult for customers to get to their stores and hurt business.
But many are welcoming the market’s single-day reappearance, said Barrick, who wasn’t involved in the market’s management in 2005.
“We really appreciate the warm welcome that the business owners have extended to us,” he said Thursday.
“The people I’ve talked to have been very enthusiastic that we’re going to be back.”
The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with about 30 vendors.
“It’ll be our basic program,” Barrick said.
“There will be music, and we’ll be selling the crafts and produce that we do so well.”
After the market closes, the street will remain closed for entertainment related to the 6 p.m. Avenue of the People ceremony, when wraps will be taken off seven sculptures on Laurel Street, Frederick said.
For more information on the Avenue of the People and Heritage Weekend, see today’s Peninsula Spotlight, the Peninsula Daily News’ weekly entertainment guide.
