The Greensburg Night Market will expand from three to four blocks starting Thursday with vendors and live music.
In the fourth year, the city’s extensive evenings of shopping, dining and entertainment – from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm. — already tripled in April, at the start of the current season. The event along Pennsylvania Avenue grew from one to three blocks, which are restricted to pedestrians on the occasion.
“The response this year for the Greensburg Night Market has been incredible,” said Jessica Hickey, owner of the Downtown Greensburg Project, which hosts the event.
She said attendance at each monthly market, held from April to September, has grown to more than 5,000 people.
“Our original plan was to expand to the fourth block next year,” she said, “but we decided to just go ahead and do it for the second half of this season.”
The enlarged Night Market location extends from Otterman Street in the south to Fourth Street. That makes way for more music and 20 new suppliers, for a total of more than 100.
The market has featured a mix of vendors from the community and beyond, offering food or handicrafts for sale.
The new companies that join the roster continue to reflect that combination. They include Steel City Whip, which serves frozen fruit treats; Rolling Pepperoni, a bakery specializing in pepperoni rolls; The Preppie Puppy, which sells leashes, collars, bow ties and other items for dogs; and Made for Mama Shop by Irwin, which specializes in handwritten coffee mugs.
Live acoustic music is performed by local artists in each of the four blocks. Thursday’s lineup includes Josh Jams, Chad Toland, Michael Lindner and a solo performance by a member of the band The String Theory.
There is a waiting list of additional vendors eager to set up stalls in the market, Hickey said. For now, she has reached the limit of available space for sellers, but she hopes that visitor numbers will continue to grow.
“It’s exciting to see so many people in the market,” Hickey said. She encourages visitors, after perusing the market stalls, to explore the many downtown shops, restaurants and bars that will be open during the event.
“Hopefully they’ll get new customers,” she said. “We’re attracting a lot of people from all over the city to the city, including from Pittsburgh.”
While dog lovers visiting the market may find items geared to dogs, they are asked to leave their pets at home for safety reasons.
August 25 and September 29 are the remaining market dates for this season.
Visit greensburgnightmarket.com for more information.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter.
