Joe Zalescik is looking for a few good singers.
Or musicians.
Or both.
Zalescik is the coordinator for the Mount Airy Farmer’s Market, and he is looking for singers and musicians who can provide a few hours’ worth of musical entertainment when the market is open each Friday.
“A donation was received to cover the costs of a portable tent and chairs for the entertainers along with performance fees to cover six dates,” he said Friday. Performers will need to be available to play from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the farmers market, which is in the Post Office parking lot.
“We’re not looking for any particular type of music,” he said. “But it would have to be acoustic at the market…because we don’t have electricity there…We’re really open to anything.”
Zalescik said this might be a good opportunity for a local musician, or musicians, who want to get exposure, to “get their name out there.” He said musicians will be able to sell their CDs if they’d like as well.
“We’ll probably start booking out the music in June, the second or third week in June,” he said. Once summer arrives, he said vendors often have more local produce to sell, attracting bigger crowds. That’s when he’d like to start the live music.
He said the donation will cover the costs for about six weeks, which will serve as a trial run.
“I want to see if there’s success with it, and then we’ll look at trying to get grants or donations to fund it the rest of the season, or we’ll fund it, that’ll be a board decision,” he said of the governing board for the Surry Count Farmer’s Market, which oversees the Mount Airy effort. He added that the group is open to other individuals or groups donating money to continue the live music.
The Surry County Farmers Market oversees not only the Friday Mount Airy market, which is open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., but the Elkin Farmers Market (open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon) and the market in Dobson, which won’t open until May 13, when its operating hours will be 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. each Thursday.
Zalescik said while there’s not a lot of local produce coming in yet, the Ekin and Mount Airy markets are doing good business with local farmers and crafters selling other goods.
“We have people who sell meat, sell eggs, they basically could sell year ‘round. We have people who sell honey, flowers, and we have crafters, wood crafters, fabric crafters. It’s not strictly a produce market.” Zalescik is also a vendor, selling hot roasted peanuts in the shell and homemade peanut butter.
He said the market did well in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and he expects this year to be even better. Already 55 vendors have signed up.
“As a Surry County Farmers Market we collect one fee for the whole season,” which goes through October, he said. Once they’ve paid, they can do all three of the county’s markets each week, or pick and choose which ones or which dates to sell.
He said the Elkin market already does entertainment most weeks, coordinated by the town, but this will be a new experience for those working and visiting the Mount Air market.
Anyone interested in booking a date, or dates, during the Mount Airy market should contact Zalescik at 336-934-2791 or e-mail zales60@yahoo.com
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com