Like most of Planet Earth, we’ve been monitoring the news and formal vaccine rollout announcements to better understand vaccination timelines and how they might impact our markets/gatherings. Progress is being made, and it feels as though momentum is starting to build, but the initial launch pace is definitely less than originally anticipated. Two charts below are from the state, and they do a pretty great job of correlating the expected vaccination points against the calendar/age and risk groups.
At this time, we are going to delay the opening of Collegedale (our smallest, indoor venue) by about a month – I feel much better and more confident about our Spring/Outdoor markets than the enclosed Winter/Indoor efforts. The rest of the markets are anticipated to open on schedule, although they will remain in a modified size/format for at least the first half of the season.
2021 Market Opening Sequence
March: River, Collegedale
April: Chattanooga
Erlanger will remain closed at this time
More information about our special events, festivals and vendor meeting will be published in the upcoming weeks. Stay safe!
Actually, no – I anticipate that Chattanooga will open close to our normal self (food trucks, beer/wine, arts/crafts and of course farms/foods). The density of our layout will remain modified, which will mean less vendors will be indoors, but I hope that we will drop the essentials-only format.
I really don’t have all of those answers yet (my most-excellent team and I are brainstorming on several topics), but our priority is to keep the market safe, comfortable and open as wide as we can. We’re looking at ways we might possibly leverage more of the campus, and Melissa/Tucker had a great meeting this week to more broadly expand the River Market efforts this season.
The one thing I do believe will happen is that many of our “festivals” will shift later into the season. That seems intuitively necessary, and won’t be a surprise to anyone. I miss the live music and special events, but our priority is safety and comfort. Patience is difficult, but I do think we are going to return to normal before the year is up.
