By: Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
Dresden’s Summer Night Market isn’t over after all.
Instead, the renamed “Dresden Market Fair,” is moving to a new location on the Dresden Agricultural Society’s property at the Dresden Raceway.
The event, that has attracted thousands to downtown Dresden since its inception in 2018, is taking place July 25. It will be preceded by the tractor pull – another popular draw – on the evening of July 24.
According to Dresden Agricultural Society’s Alicia VanEsse, the reimagined event will build on the success of the summer market, and organizers are hoping vendors and visitors will keep on coming.
“We’re really just changing locations,” said VanEsse, one of the directors on the ag society board. “We’re trying to make sure that everybody who was involved is still involved,” she said in a telephone interview, noting organizers hope all of the estimated 100 vendors will return.
“We’re honestly just picking it up from the middle of town and putting it on the ag society’s property,” VanEsse explained. “We’re glad to keep it in Dresden to showcase what we have.”
Morena McDonald, one of the founders of the Summer Night Market and the Dresden Christmas Market, announced earlier this month that her group of organizers decided to step away from the summer market, stating that the workload of organizing two large events was becoming too great.
Instead, McDonald explained, the core of volunteer organizers, which includes Tyler Ouellette, want to focus on the Dresden Christmas Market, building on the “Christmas Town” work carried out by the Dresden Shines group.
“We want to nurture that and collaborate more,” McDonald said in an interview. “Planning two similar events only a few months apart, we weren’t able to invest the time needed to focus on the growth of two events.
“We want to start those conversations earlier this year and hopefully we can get even more community groups involved,” she said. “There’s a lot of benefits to focusing on just one.”
The Dresden Christmas Night Market is tentatively scheduled for the last weekend of November. The first one took place in 2017.
Going forward, McDonald hopes everyone will embrace all the “cool things and spinoffs” both markets bring to Dresden.
The Dresden Summer Night Market has been recognized by Festival and Events Ontario as one of the top 100 events in the province. It was also nominated for a provincial sustainability award.
The Dresden Agricultural Society is welcoming inquiries. People interested in volunteering or setting up a vendor booth are invited to email dresdensummernights@gmail.com.
