Let me begin by stating that more information will be following in the next day or two – as you might expect, there are some complexities involved with restarting the markets in this environment, and we want to do it correctly, safely and professionally. Further, we will be scheduling a Zoom video Q&A for anyone who wishes to attend 
- Friday, May 1 @ 2pm
- https://zoom.us (click Join a Meeting)
- Meeting ID: expired
(Zoom bombing is a new hobby of the bored and stuck-at-home, thus the password requirement).
It’s a lot to take in, but everyone wishing to participate as a vendor in one of our markets should take the time to read the latest guidelines here:
It will help you to better understand the phased nature of the restart efforts, the safety measures you as a vendor are required to take, and the important role we have as an organization to help restore confidence to our community. This is going to be a multi-month restart effort, with constant change – but at least we are able to begin the recovery efforts.
Sunday May 10 - Collegedale Market 11am-4pm (ongoing every Sunday)
- Capacity: 50 vendors
- Patron Limit: 45 minutes (shop and leave)
- Location: Outdoors only; no indoor access.
- Eligible Categories: fresh produce, farms/agricultural products, plants, packaged foods, baked goods/breads, take-and-bakes, soaps/body care, face masks.
- Not Allowed during this phase: food trucks/onsite dining, beverages, clothing, arts & crafts, anything not typically found in a grocery store. There will also not be any live music or cultural programming for most of the summer months.
Registration will be made online, prepaid, and capacities enforced. There will not be a roll call; market managers will assign booth locations ahead of the market.
The entire event will be held outdoors, and heavily restricted: no sampling, face masks required, gloves and cleaning efforts required, social distancing enforced, and all other measures as specified by the State, County and CDC enforced. At-risk vendors are advised to not attend; you must check your temperature before arrival to verify that you do not have a fever. A more comprehensive guide will be published soon.
Based on the State guidelines, we hope to loosen the restrictions and allow for additional vendors/types to join the expanded market in June. We also expect to introduce the Wednesday Market in June. Timing will be driven by the health crisis trends, and recommendations of the County/State/CDC.
Saturday May 23-24 - Chattanooga Market 11am-4pm (ongoing every Saturday & Sunday during the summer)
- Capacity : 65 vendors, a 65% decrease in our indoor levels
- Patron Limit: 45 minutes (shop and leave)
- Eligible Categories : fresh produce, farms/agricultural products, plants, packaged foods, baked goods/breads, take-and-bakes, soaps/body care, face masks. Limited crafts.
- Not Allowed during this phase:onsite dining, beverages, clothing, arts, most items not typically found in a grocery store. There will also not be any live music or cultural programming for most of the summer months.
Registration will be made online, prepaid, and capacities enforced. There will not be a roll call; market managers will assign booth locations ahead of the market. We are going to double down this summer – both Saturday and Sunday (11am-4pm both days) to allow more vendors to participate, to give our crowds more time to disperse and feel comfortable.,
The entire event will be heavily restricted: no sampling, face masks required, gloves and cleaning efforts required, social distancing enforced, and all other measures as specified by the State, County and CDC enforced. At-risk vendors are advised to not attend; you must check your temperature before arrival to verify that you do not have a fever. A more comprehensive guide will be published soon.
Based on the State guidelines, we hope to loosen the restrictions and allow for additional vendors/types to join the expanded market in June. Timing will be driven by the health crisis trends, and recommendations of the County/State/CDC.
We want to introduce Food Trucks to the downtown market as soon as possible, and will allow a small group to participate with take-and-bake items in May. But it’s urgently important that no onsite dining take place during this phase of the restart process – so I’m not inclined to allow any hot food sales to occur. We all know that people will just go sit on the curb and eat their lunch, which is counter productive at this particular junction.
Parking will be restricted downtown to limit the crowds - we are going to close off our largest lot to significantly decrease crowd sizes. Contrary to our normal approach, we do not want for our guests to linger. They will be asked to shop and leave.
Moving Forward, likely in June, we will allow additional vendors to join the markets. Given that our capacities are not going to return to normal for several months, we’re going to ask that you not sign up for back-to-back days or weekends in advance – give others a chance.
River Market
It’s too early to know for sure, but I think River will probably open up in mid-June. We’ll just have to wait and see on that.
Food Truck Court
One last idea we had was to allow up to 4 Food Trucks/day, Mon-Fri, to setup on 19th Street in front of Finley Stadium as a to-go, drive-through, or pickup spot. This is a bit of a brainstorm in progress, so if you have any interest in this please message us and we will put some more thoughts towards this.