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Red Deer Market gearing up for 48th summer

Final season at the Memorial Centre
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The Red Deer Market is set to return on May 19. (Advocate file photo)

This year’s Red Deer Market marks the last time the popular Saturday gathering will be displaced by construction at its usual home.

Starting May 19, the market is back at the Memorial Centre parking lot (4214 58th St.). Next year the market will return to the front of the Servus Arena.

“(The city has) assured me I can move back the arena parking lot,” said Dennis Moffat, market director. “It seems to be working alright. The vendors are getting used to it now that it’s the third year.

“They’ve very anxious to go back, because the arena seems to be our home.”

Moffat said they have had fewer vendors for their time at the Memorial Centre parking lot area, because it is a smaller area.

It’s also the 48th year the market has run during the summer in the city. Moffat said he plans to turn the market over to his son after the market celebrates its 50th year.

“I’m thinking ahead to something special we can do for the vendors,” said Moffat.

Moffat started the market in 1971 when it was held at the old Red Deer Exhibition Grounds with just 18 vendors.

Red Deer’s midweek market fix, the Wednesday downtown market, returns to the city May 30. It runs every Wednesday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Little Gaetz Avenue.

The market runs every Saturday from the Victoria Day long weekend until the Thanksgiving long weekend in October. It starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 12:30 p.m.

Other markets in Central Alberta include:

l Lacombe’s Farmers’ Market starts Friday, May 18, but this year in a new location at Michener Park, on 63rd Street south of Hwy 12. It runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and winds down Oct. 5. There are several winter market dates planned for the Lacombe Farmers’ Market.

l Blackfald’s Market runs Sundays and goes from June 7 to Aug. 30, it takes place from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the Blackfalds Multiplex, 5302 Broadway Ave.

l Sylvan Lake’s Farmers Market runs from May 18 to Sept. 28 at 5104 Lakeshore Dr. The market is open from 4 to 7:30 p.m.