Epic, amazing and emotional – that’s how the organisers of today’s ‘Forres Family Market’ described their first event, a collection of food vendors, local producers and entertainers.
Based in the old Tesco car park on Gordon Street, there were more than 70 stalls selling locally-made produce and gifts. The event was supported by AES Solar which owns the car park, and The Moray Honey Company, who helped organise it.
It was such a success, that they’re already making plans to expand the next one. With the date already confirmed, organiser Kay Thomson told us that all 70-plus stalls here today had confirmed they will attend the next one on 27 April.
She said: “This morning has been a dream. Everyone arrived on time. We didn’t block any traffic and we got support from the police who arrived to give a presence as well. They said it was exceptionally well-controlled. And going forward, we’ve already had all of the stallholders booked for April already.
“Hopefully it helps people that are on the high street as well because we’ve encouraged everyone to park up in the town centre car parks so they can support the shops as well as come down to the market.
“People are in the festive spirit and I think the quality of the stallholders that we have here have their own tribe and those tribes have come with them.”
We spoke to several customers who came from as far as Aberdeen, but also the nearby towns of Elgin, Nairn and Aberlour. We saw streams of pedestrian traffic coming in and out from Gordon Street and Caroline Street.
Kay mentioned future plans could see it extended to a two-day event by next year, and food vendors have told her that they’d like to do separate street-food events outwith the quarterly markets. She said plans for this are already underway, and we could see a street-food market by summer.
“We have all bases covered, from seafood to donuts to hog roast.”
She added: “I’m over the moon. I’m blown away by the community spirit, and the atmosphere has been lovely this morning. It feels like it’s brought the community together.”
And the feeling was echoed by all the vendors and customers we spoke to. ‘Amazing turnout’, ‘well-organised’ and ‘we’ll definitely be back’ were frequent responses.
As well as live entertainment from Turriff Silver Band and a DJ, there was also a licenced bar on site. The Mosset Tavern had a stall serving beer and spirits as well as mulled wine and cider.
Landlord Gordon Brailsford said: “What an amazing turnout from Forres folk at the first Forres Family Market. It was a brilliant show of community support and perfect for getting into the Christmas spirit nice and early.”
The next Forres Family Market will be on 27 April at the same location.
