This summer the Park Silly Sunday Market reduced its number of days by 25% and only operated on lower Main Street north of Heber Avenue. The change came amid complaints from Old Town businesses, who claimed the market stole customers.
But at Tuesday’s meeting, High West bartender Chris Dorsey said without the Silly Market, fewer people come to Main Street.
“Since the Silly Market went away, I guarantee you the last two Sundays our business has been down,” Dorsey said.
Collie’s Sports Bar owner Tim Wakeling agreed and said the market should continue on Main Street after its contract with the city expires later this year.
“Without Park Silly, Main Street is dead,” Wakeling said. “Main Street this year has been significantly quieter than previous years. If you take away Park Silly, I don’t know what businesses are going to do. I know we will be impacted severely.”
Park City homeowner Bill Young offered a different perspective, saying the consistency of the event causes disturbances.
“It’s just the quality of life, it’s the congestion, it’s the noise,” Young said. “Even the Follies have talked about it, made fun of it — there doesn’t have to be something going on every weekend.”
Former Park City Mayor Dana Williams pushed back against those comments.
“Downtown is all of ours, it’s not just the business alliance’s, with all due respect,” Williams said. “Downtowns should be noisy. Downtowns should be vibrant, and they have been here for one way or another going all the way back to union demonstrations in the late 1800s.”
Kate McChesney, executive director of the market, said the smaller footprint has dampened revenue this year, but they are still “in the green.” She emphasized they’d like to continue the event on Main Street under its current format, which she said is economically sustainable.
A majority of the council directed event staff to return to a later meeting with a proposal for a long-term contract.
Councilmember Max Doilney said he may have jumped to conclusions during previous discussions about the Silly Market.
“Event fatigue was a primary point of conversation for so long, I think it kind of skewed maybe my comments or feeling about Silly in previous meetings, to a point where I was sitting on the 50-50 line,” Doilney said. “But my gut kind of always told me this is not an event that I want to get rid of, but I was struggling between following my gut and listening to what was happening right in front of me and the loudest voices in the room. And oftentimes the loudest voices in the room don’t represent the majority.”
Main Street business owner, Councilmember Tana Toly said she wished the city would look into a more creative solution to spread the market throughout the year. She mentioned a potential Oktoberfest event to relieve pressure on Snowbird’s celebration, and trying a winter market.
