The Park Silly Sunday Market has concluded its 13th-season. But it wasn’t unlucky for them. Market Executive Director Kate McChesney looks back on a successful year, where they had only one rainy day.
McChesney said the Market ran for 14 weeks, with three Sundays off in August—for the Kimball Arts Festival, the Tour of Utah, and finally one weekend that was just set for no events.
She said their preliminary numbers show they attracted 170,000 people. That came to 13-14,000 visitors every Sunday, with spikes on the weekends near Miner’s Day and the Fourth of July.
McChesney also said that the transit and parking system ran well, with visitors directed to park at the school lots along Kearns Boulevard, and away from Park Avenue.
“But then of course at the high school, which was where our media was telling everybody to go, that was all torn up for the walkway,” McChesney explained. “So then we just moved it down to McPolin and Treasure. And that did work out really well. And on the larger days, we actually offer our own shuttle with Pro-Trans. So, on the July 4th weekend as well as Miner’s Day weekend, we have three additional shuttles, not in lieu of the city bus, but in addition to the city bus.”
She said they are in the second year of a three-year contract with Park City. That could also be extended for two more years.
“I think we’re having bigger conversations in February and March of this coming year,” McChesney continued. “Just to make sure we’re doing all the things, checking all the boxes, and making it as easy as we can for the city of Park City.”
And McChesney said they didn’t get a lot of time off, even in August. They were helping to manage the Summit County Fair. And they organized a Silly-type event in Spokane, Washington for five Sundays.
“They absolutely loved it,” McChesney said. “We started from scratch. It’s a little different when you’ve been living here for the majority of time. You have a lot of connection, do a lot of networking. And then all of a sudden, you’re completely out of state, know not a soul, and you’re still able to pull it off. And they’re super-psyched (…) The Quest Sunday Fest is now going to be an annual event. And this coming year, we’re going to do either eight or nine Sundays, vs. the five that we just successfully did this year.”
