Riverside Arts Market.

[stephendare]

Did anyone purchase any food or merchandise from the market?

How was the selection>?

[stephElf]

I got a plain cheese slice and 2 diet cokes from the Pizza Palace booth for $5 and a pink bandanna for my dog from Pinstripe Paws!

http://reviewjax.blogspot.com/2009/04/riverside-arts-market-opening-day.html

[tpot]

I didn't purchase any of the art/craft products....It was kinda crowded and i wasn't in the mood.  I did have some pulled pork, black beans and rice for $5 and it was VERY GOOD

[Shwaz]

I Picked up an Irish Pie with steak & cream black pepper.
My girlfriend purchased a pair of earings.
There was "dip" for sale that were sold in pouches just add cream cheese sour cream but we passed on those. They were very tasty though.

[CMG22]

I visited.  There was a decent selection--some interesting items for sure.  My friends bought cupcakes and kettle corn.  I snacked on their stuff.

Unfortunately, I didn't buy anything.  I'd love to support local artists, but I have to support my student loans first...

[fsu813]

I wonder what the turn out will be from week to week. Certainly not as big as the much-hyped grand opening.

[stjr]

I wonder what the turn out will be from week to week. Certainly not as big as the much-hyped grand opening.

Assuming comparably good weather, the next few weeks may be a better indicator of long term success than week one. 

While attendance was a clear success, is it possible the crowd estimate of 40,000 is a "Chamber of Commerce" style estimate?  I wasn't there so I can't be sure, but from looking at the pictures posted on various web sites, the crowd looked to me as thinner than I would expect to support that number.  I come to this thought based on a suggestion that there were about 10,000 people there at any one time which translates to some 63 people for each and every booth simultaneously!  Is that the feeling one got from being there?  It doesn't seem so in the posted video or pictures.

Also, if you assume 10,000 people, discounting for the bike riders and pedestrian approaches, was there parking to handle, say, 2,000  to 3,000 vehicles at one time?  I remember reading the Fidelity lot could handle about 1,000.

The danger to overplaying big crowds is that any absence of them may look like a sign of weakness.  Just look at all the comments about "less crowded" stores, restaurant, and airports in this economy.

[will]

I was there and the crowds were real. I parked at the cummer lot. I was surprised at how many people showed up. However, I was a little disappointed by the market itself. The art was ok, but I'd frankly rather see it skew towards a high end food market with local origins. I want to see sausages made in Macclenny and organic lettuce grown in the city limits - that sort of thing. I used to live in London and the Borough Market near the Thames did this sort of thing and it was great.  Selling crappy slices of pizza doesn't cut it. Overall though, it was a good start.

[ChriswUfGator]

I didn't see anything I wanted, really. Didn't wind up spending any money. Weather sure was nice, though.

I had eaten before I went, so that eliminated pretty much everything I could justify buying. And I guess I'm not knocking it, per se, but I was definitely a little surprised with how much it leaned towards being a produce market / crafts fair, versus anything really art-related.

Given what I'd heard about it before going, I was expecting more actual art.

[floridaforester]

We had a wonderful time at the Arts Market.  Mostly people watching and enjoying the weather.  It was great to see so many people out on foot & bike.

While I was hoping to see more fine art-painting, sculpture, wood-working,etc, I figure that the market will evolve and hopefully will be more balanced in the future.  I've never seen so much "jewelry" in my life.  Though there were a couple of nice jewelry vendors, much of it was beads and what-not.

We bought several maypop plants from the edible plant vendor (a 1 gallon pot with 4 small plants for $2).  All of his plants were very reasonably priced.  Also bought a British pie-pulled pork, although I wanted a curry chicken they were already sold out of just about everything. 

Finally, last purchase was 4 tomatoes at one of the produce vendors.  Was really disappointed by the number of plastic bags they were throwing around.  In fact, my wife was trying to hand her our cloth bag for the tomatoes and she had already started throwing the tomatoes in a plastic bag.

I thought that sort of packaging was going to be discouraged at the market.  Maybe someone should speak with this particular vendor and encourage them to use paper or something that is at least decomposable and renewable.   Another note, the recycling bins were full of other trash and many trash bins had plastic & aluminum.  I'm not sure what can be done to change behavior.  I guess some people just don't think about what they do.  Will definitely be back and support the RAM as much as possible.

[Charles Hunter]

tpot - you got black beans? By the time I got to that booth, the black beans were gone!
I parked a couple blocks past the Cummer (BTW wonder how they feel about all these folks using their lot, and not coming to the museum - or maybe some RAM visitors will stop by?).  It was pretty crowded when I was there.  But I'm no good at guesstimating crowds.

[ChriswUfGator]

Just watched the late news, and they did a really nice segment on it.

40k people estimated to have visited...

[mtraininjax]

40k people? No way, they don't get that many for the Riverside Arts Festival.

[ChriswUfGator]

40k people? No way, they don't get that many for the Riverside Arts Festival.

That's what the news said. You're welcome to go take it up with Fox...

[CrysG]

I was there along with my husband and my parents. I got 2 British meat pies(had them for dinner last night, delish) and sausage roll and apple turn over. I also got strawberry jam. My parents got a necklace and kale. Lastly we 3 got mini cakes with my mother getting a min pie. I have to say that those cakes were the best I've had in a really long time.

I saw a couple of things that if they are there this weekend that I might get.