Fremont Sunday Market Working On A Triumphant (& Safe) Return

The Fremont Sunday Market is getting a new model worked out, for a triumphant return – possibly in June 2020, for its 30th season!! Photo provided by Northwest Marketplaces

Contrary to the frightening rumors, the Fremont Sunday Market is alive and well – and supporting its sister market in Ballard while working on a new model for a (hopefully) June return. Stepping into its 30^th Anniversary season, the Fremont Market is anxious to find safe ways to return to its N 34^th St home.

Fremont Market staff are training in safety-measures and planning for re-opening this summer! Photo of the Ballard Farmer’s Market provided by Northwest Marketplaces, May ’20

“You’ll find our crew working in Ballard on Sundays,” explained Jon Hegeman, of Northwest Marketplaces, about the Fremont Market’s staff training and planning. Ballard is a farmer’s market, which takes precedence over street markets like the Fremont and South Lake Union’s Saturday Market. “We’ve been inching our way back, demonstrating how we run open-air markets safely enough to satisfy the Mayor’s concerns,” Hegeman wrote by e-mail.

Vendors at the Fremont Market may have other ways to sell their product, but few beat talking with new customers and introducing new products to them! Photo by K. Lindsay Laney, Aug ’15

When the Fremont Sunday Market returns, its fans and neighbors will see changes – that Hegeman describes as ‘casual distancing’ – with mandatory masks, cleaning measures and control gates to limit admittance of shoppers. With its fantastic and supportive customer-base, the expectation is that Fremont will be able to open sooner as its visitors always behave in responsible and compliant ways.

Do NOT expect to see a crowded street at the Fremont Sunday Market this summer, as we all learn to stroll-n-shop with social distance. Photo by Alans, Jun ’13

The Northwest Marketplaces has more than 900 member vendors – most of them small entrepreneurs that have no brick-and-mortar or on-line presence. These vendors depend upon the Markets to get their products in front of customers, and the extended closure of the Fremont Sunday Market could strangle the spirit out of these artisans, creators and innovators. Not to mention, the energy that the Fremont Sunday Market brings to the commercial district of the Center of the Universe lends a vibrancy to our sidewalks that could enliven the rest of our business district as it reopens and recovers from the spring COVID-19 pandemic closure.

Over 900 vendors are impacted by the continued closure of the Fremont Market – not to mention the customers who need their Sunday fix!! Photo by K. Lindsay Laney, Aug ’15

Those who want to support the Fremont Sunday Market can volunteer to serve as the extra monitors they may need to help limit the numbers of shoppers at the gates, in the early phases of re-opening. Also, if anyone wants to write Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s Office or Governor Jay Inslee to plead the case for reopening open-air markets sooner rather than later, it could help.

Visit the FremontMarket.com website, or the Fremont Market Facebook page, for more information on volunteer and vendor opportunities – and to find out when we get back this vital, pop-up retail shopping experience.