One of the biggest holiday seasonal events that Downtown London, the BIA for the city’s core, has had “in a long time” will get underway starting the weekend of Nov. 26, according to the BIA’s executive director.
Barbara Maly says the Festival of Markets will run from Friday to Sunday for four weeks in a row, with themes for each: IndigenART, Very Vintage Xmas, PopART and Afrik. There will also be a one-day market for last-minute shoppers on Dec. 23.
Downtown London says the free-to-attend festival will feature 12 shipping container vendor booths in addition to art installations and live music. Vendor lists will soon be posted on a Facebook event page, the BIA added. The markets will be held on Dundas Place, between Ridout and Talbot streets.
While the Festival of Markets is the main event, it’s among many holiday events and activities planned for downtown London, Ont.
“We’ve set it up so that people, no matter where you go downtown, there’ll be something to do and see and kind of ring in that holiday season,” Maly told Global News.
“We’ll be seeing holiday carollers wandering through the downtown singing, scavenger hunts, contests. We also have a hot chocolate crawl where there’ll be hot chocolate, tea, coffee stations. And of course, we’re going to have our window display contest.”
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Following extensive and lengthy restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maly is anticipating a particularly busy holiday season for the core.
“I think with all the pent-up demand, people are anxious to get out and get back to normal. And so we are doing this in a COVID-safe way. But no matter where you go downtown, there will be something to do.”
When asked about such events on Thursday, Middlesex-London Health Unit acting medical officer of health Dr. Alex Summers said there is “no such thing as no risk,” instead, it’s about risk assessment.
“The good news about these outdoor events is that the risk of (COVID-19) transmission in an outdoor setting is substantially lower than an indoor setting,” he said.
“And when we look at the high vaccination coverage amongst a majority of people that will be attending those, we can be encouraged that in an outdoor setting with a highly-vaccinated population, the risk can be reduced dramatically.”
As of Nov. 14, the MLHU reported that 89.7 per cent of eligible residents (those 12 and older) have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 86.7 per cent are fully vaccinated.
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