Merritt’s popular ‘Summer Nights Market’, which originally kicked off in 2018, faced an uncertain future when large gatherings were prohibited by the BC government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Ryan Wuthe, acting president of the Merritt and District Chamber of Commerce, believes there is a possibility for the market to go ahead as an ‘August Summer Nights Market’, which would see vendors set up Fridays on Quilchena Ave. until September.

“What we’re doing right now is just exploring whether this is a real possibility,” said Wuthe.

“What we’ve done is we’ve gotten support from the city, and then we canvassed the downtown businesses within that block where the market usually happens to find out what support we’d get from them, and they were supportive as well.”

The tentative date for the first market has been set as August 14, but Wuthe acknowledges that this is fairly short notice for potential vendors, particularly those who have already been affected by shutdowns of markets and sales.

“The next move is to see if we could actually get any vendors, it’s pretty short notice, pretty late in the season,” said Wuthe.

“I’ve already gotten some feedback from vendors that they don’t have the inventory, and it’s too short notice, so quite honestly if we have no vendors, we have no market. And then from there, it’s do we have the manpower? Do we have volunteers? There’s a certain amount of people to run this properly.”

From there, if enough interest is generated and there is a response from both vendors and the community wanting to move forward with the market, the safety planning and implementation of COVID-19 safety protocols would follow.

After that, if all that gets put into place then it’s, how do we design the market, so it is COVID safe, so it’s socially responsible?” said Wuthe.

“There are some challenges that exist, obviously, in today’s circumstances to ensure that everybody is going to be safe and distanced properly, that we have the proper PPE in place, that we have handwash stations, all that kind of stuff. We haven’t really dove into it too hard at this point, what we’ve done is taken examples from other municipalities that have been working at farmers’ markets, we’ve also reached out and had conversations with our local farmers market,” Wuthe continued.

“And the City has some guidelines that we would follow, as well as the BC government. But before we went to those lengths and actually came up with a plan, for layout and everything, we need to know that we actually have interest. If we have no interest, there’s no point in investing all that time and effort.”

Traditionally, the Nicola Valley Farmers’ Market sets up in conjunction with the Summer Nights Market, but this year several vendors have declined to return to either, citing health concerns, particularly as cases in BC begin to climb again.

“I’ve had a conversation with the farmers market, there wasn’t a large amount of interest there,” said Wuthe.

“There were maybe two or three vendors that would be willing, with some genuine concern of today’s circumstances, and COVID. It’s not easy, it’s been challenging, there’s definitely roadblocks that exist and there’s genuine concern in the community of, are we ready for this? I know the interest is there, the community is craving for something to happen in a time when nothing is happening, but if we can’t do it safely and we don’t have the interest it just won’t happen.”

Wuthe and other members of the Chamber of Commerce are hoping for feedback from the community and from vendors that will help either establish the market for the tail end of the 2020 season, or postpone it until next year.

“We didn’t want to set it up in order to disappoint,” said Wuthe.

“We didn’t want to say, ‘this is happening’ and then, ‘oh by the way, now it’s not happening’. Because without knowing the level of interest that’s out there, I know people are missing the market this year for sure, but we’re all constantly getting feedback of whether we can do it safely. It can happen as far as I’m concerned, but without vendors and without volunteers it’s going to be pretty tough to do.”

For those interested in taking part if the market gets up and going for the rest of August, vendor fees have increased from $10 to $15 per table, something Wuthe says reflects the new cost of setting up safely.

“It’s $15 per table,” explained Wuthe.

“There were some questions as to why it had gone up, but we need to factor in that in today’s circumstances there may be some more costs involved in providing PPE, the handwashing stations and all that stuff. We know there’s going to be some additional cost with setting it up.”

All types of vendors are welcome, from crafters and bakers, to household items and even food trucks, provided they carry their own insurance and have prepared a COVID-19 safety plan which aligns with the province’s regulations regarding food and dining.

Wuthe hopes that the market will move ahead, but notes that postponing does not necessarily mean the end of the event forever, there is always the summer of 2021, when we all hope we will have returned to some semblance of normalcy.

“We’re trying to do something for our little community,” Wuthe concluded.