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PrintPalm Springs Adds Saturday Open Air Market
New Street Fair targets weekend visitors, fills festival gap downtown
The Palm Springs Open Air Market will be housed at the north parking lot of the Spa Resort Casino.
Jim Powers
Weekly festivals are not reserved for just Thursday nights in downtown Palm Springs any longer.
Saturday morning will bring the inaugural start of the Open Air Market located in the north parking lot of the Spa Resort Casino on Calle Encilia between Alejo and Amado roads. The weekly festival will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every Saturday through Memorial Day weekend next year, according to Mindy King, who partners with Dawn Brown to form Uptown Productions LLC, which is running the event.
King said the idea came from watching visitors stream into Palm Springs for the weekend who had missed the Thursday night Village Fest along Palm Springs Canyon, and didn't want to make the drive Saturday to Palm Desert for the College of the Desert Street Fair.
"We saw a need, and we see the Open Market as a combination of the Village Festival and Street Fair," said King. "We don't think we necessarily have to be that different. We're for the weekenders who come here looking for something to do."
King found a favorable response to the Open Market from talking to vendors involved with Village Fest.
"A lot of them are not at the Street Fair, and they have multiple teams that hit several festivals in a weekend," King said.
King said the Open Market will include vendors offering apparel and accessories, art, jewelry, mid-century modern furnishings and home fixtures, textiles, flowers, health wellness and beauty items, farmed and prepared foods, and baked goods. There will be live music and gift certificate raffles.
Admission is free.
