Turlock crowds may again stroll Main Street on Thursday nights

Turlock’s Thursday night downtown farmers market may be coming back, with promotions of local brick and mortar businesses, and the blessing of Turlock’s longtime Saturday market.

The Central Park Evening Market will seek Turlock City Council approval March 28 to open from Thursday evenings, May through September, in the small park at Main Street and Golden State Boulevard, said organizer Valeria Jimenez.

The Thursday evening market would take the place of the enterprise run by Peter Cipponeri’s Golden State Farmers Market Association, which caused a visible rift in city politics a year ago. Cipponeri’s market won the popular Saturday morning Main Street slot, but its customary crowds followed the displaced Turlock Certified Farmers Market to the Turlock fairgrounds. The older market thrived in its new digs, while the Main Street upstart ended its disappointing first season early.

“I love Turlock and it was never my intent to cause any divisions within our city,” Cipponeri said in a statement by new market. “While I will not personally be involved in the market, I know Valeria and her team will do a great job of starting this new tradition.”

Jimenez said Monday she will be the sole point of contact for the Central Park market, employed by Cipponeri to run the enterprise under the Golden State contract if the council approves the switch to Thursday evenings.

“I think everyone is happy that it’s a new day, new time. I can't foresee any problems at this time,” said Jimenez, a local marketing director with a passion for jewelry design. She plans to be one of the vendors in a list just starting to fill for the market. If all goes well on the 28th, the first Central Park Evening Market would be 5-8 p.m. May 4.

Plans to promote downtown restaurants on Thursday nights are in the works – a wristband to savor samples is one idea – and local bands playing music, Jimenez said. She hopes downtown businesses will consider Thursday night shopping hours, and is working on Warrior nights to appeal to California State University, Stanislaus students.

“Let’s send our graduates off with a band and celebrate them coming back in the fall,” she said. “Let’s just celebrate everything local here.”

Cipponeri also plans local support, donating market’s profits to a different local charity each month, starting with the Turlock Salvation Army for May.

The market, in its statement, also has pledged a donation to the surviving Saturday farmers market. The nonprofit market, operating since 2010, found summer shade, plentiful parking and serendipitous traffic at its new home in the fairgrounds.

“We actually really enjoy where we’re at,” said Brandon Follett, a Turlock Certified Farmers Market board member. Follett said Monday there are no plans to go back to Main Street. The season will kick off early this year at the suggestion of vendors.

April 22 will be opening day for the market, which has plenty of under-roof space should April showers arrive, too.

Follett said he welcomes the Thursday night market. “Their approach is a little bit different. They want to involve downtown businesses, make it a fun event. It’s definitely something needed in the community,” he said.

“I think it's a good idea,” said TCFM co-founder and board member Jeani Ferrari said. “Turlock has a wonderful downtown and people often talk of the good old days when there was a Thursday night market,” she said. Having two farmers markets that do not run head to head, she added, “makes sense to me.”

In the 1990s, Turlock’s Thursday night farmers market stretched nearly the length of downtown, drawing strolling, chatting crowds and envy from across the San Joaquin Valley. But downtown renovations to widen sidewalks and replace water lines in 1998 cost the market its mojo, and it closed two years later.

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Turlock crowds may again stroll Main Street on Thursday nights."