2020 was an unusual year, to say the least. Construction had finally started on the pavilion, but it was not going to be finished in time for our usual opening in the middle of April. Then, to complicate things, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The City of Lebanon told us we could temporarily set up in the parking lot of the Cowan Civic Center, but the market would have to be drive through only. We ended up setting up there on May 9, with a handful of vendors, then set up there two more weeks. Then, we were told that even though the pavilion was not completed yet, since it had a roof we would be able to start using it Memorial Day weekend. As you can imagine, we were pretty excited, and so were our customers. All season long, they were telling us what a wonderful thing it was, and what a blessing it was to the vendors and the customers, too. Because of Covid-19, face masks and hand sanitizer were in abundance all season.
We survived 2020, and now we are working feverishly to prepare for 2021. Covid-19 is still here, but we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Numbers have been extremely encouraging in Laclede County the last couple of weeks, and we hope that trend continues. We will be holding an informational meeting for potential vendors at the pavilion this Saturday, March 20 at 11am. We have several vendors who will probably be returning, and there has been quite a bit of interest already from new vendors who want to be able to offer their products to you. After the meeting Saturday, we will have a better idea of our coming vendor lineup, and we will make more updates on the Meet Our Vendors page.
As part of our preparations for this year, we have been working hard to update this website, which hadn’t been touched since it went up in 2015. We are slowly figuring out what we are doing, but please be patient as we complete the project. Not all of us have experience in this type of thing.
We are looking forward to see you on opening day, Saturday, April 17, from 8am to 1pm. Wednesday markets will start the following Wednesday, April 21, and Wednesday hours are 2pm to 6pm.