Popular Main Street summer events’ contracts expire this month. Two surveys are available for the community to voice opinions about the Silly Sunday Market and the Kimball Arts Festival.
The Silly Sunday market had its last day of the season over the weekend and traffic was backed up to Deer Valley Drive.
Ginger Wicks is the executive director of the Historic Park City Alliance. She says the event drew big crowds and the reaction from the community is mixed.
“Yeah, you know, I mean, we went out with a bang for sure it was it was very well-attended,” she said. “And I think to answer your question, that it would vary across the board. Some people love it, and some people think it's outgrown the streets. So the city's doing, as you know, some extensive outreach to figure out what's going to be the best next steps for the silly market and car free.”
Wicks said the Park City Council is conducting a survey with the community to understand the pros and cons of car free Silly Sunday Market and the Kimball Arts Festival.
“Well, I think they just they're doing a great job in polling residents and businesses to try and figure out, you know, is the consensus they just want the market to leave Main Street,” Wicks asked. “Are we open to modifying maybe what the market looks like? modifying a number of vendors, maybe modifying a number of Sundays, just exploring all options, really doing the due diligence, so they can take those results back to council so that the decisions can be made for the future?"
Jennifer Wesselhoff is the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber Bureau. She says the crowds at Sunday’s Silly Market are typically made up of visitors who are close enough to drive to the event, but don’t live locally. She calls them day trippers.
“You know day trippers typically don't spend as much money in the community as an overnight visitor,” she said. “So our job we tend to focus on the overnight visitor because they're higher value visitor, right? They stay longer, they spend more money, they're easier to influence because they're in our community for a longer period of time. But I don't want to diminish the importance of a Day Tripper. I think if we were to talk to a lot of the businesses along Main Street, they would tell us that the day trip visitors a very important visitor for them, especially during slower time periods.”
Wicks says while the Kimball Arts Festival is generally a very well-received event, there are some concerns from some of business owners on Main Street.
“I think our biggest some of the feedback I've heard is is specifically to the Friday event, and trying to figure out a way to still get deliveries in for the weekend and make making sure that it still is addressing some of the locals and making sure locals are still at being able to access the street on that Friday,” Wicks said. “But overall, I think the consensus for that event is it's well, very well received.”
The surveys can be found online here. The two surveys close October 3rd.
