Wausau Night Market returns June 18

The sunset’s soothing hues light up the aged brick, gentle music ripples from building to building and booth to booth, and calm chatter fills the alleyways of downtown Wausau as crowds peruse Third Street.

This is the scene set at the Wausau Night Market — a monthly event hosted by the Wausau River District featuring downtown streets lined with local vendors on the third Thursday of each June, July and August. This summer, these sights and sounds will reach farther than they ever have before.

“We’re expanding about five blocks,” Wausau River District executive director Rylie Hutchinson said. “A lot of the feedback that we got was that it was pretty cramped by the food trucks … so we’re expanding down McClellan and then down Washington as well. We’re also expanding down the 200 block on Third Street, which is next to the Foundry. In July, we’re partnering with Central Boardshop to have a pretty cool event … we’ll be shutting down the 200 block to have that kind of display, competition-type situation.”

Expanding the area designated to the night market means that there are more opportunities for local businesses to display their talents. Still, the growing interest in the night market keeps the Wausau River District’s process of claiming a spot competitive.

“We have an application process that vendors go through. We really want high-quality things being sold, so we look at craftsmanship, how long their business has been operating, their social media and what kind of display they will have,” Hutchinson said. “We only accept about 50% of our vendors … There are some vendors that we accept all three nights, but there’s also some that we accept for two, or for one, so it varies every time. We’ll have about 100 vendors each night … We were at about 65 to 70 [in previous years].”

To measure the economic impact the market has on the Wausau area, the Wausau River District partners with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Together, they use geofencing technologies to understand the flow of people in and out of the downtown area.

“We can see how many people are downtown on a normal night and how many people are downtown on a night market night,” Hutchinson said. “Through that, we can also see the dollars that are spent in the market in a ratio, so how much more is being spent in that area. Through feedback from our businesses, when they stay open late, they have people in their doors and a lot of positive feedback for us. Which, that’s the whole point of the Wausau River District, to support the downtown businesses. That’s why we have the night market, so it’s very important to us that those brick-and-mortar businesses get business.”

With such a positive influence on the downtown area, hosting the event more often throughout the summer could take the economic impact to a higher level, in theory. In reality, organizers worry frequent downtown road closures and decreased event exclusivity would hurt local businesses and dim the social buzz surrounding the night market.

“We want to make it really valuable for the vendors and make sure that they get their time and money’s worth. Additionally, shutting down the street can be pretty rough on some of our other businesses because we shut down the street at about 11 a.m., so businesses don’t get traffic during that time,” Hutchinson said. “That’s where we feel like we’ve kind of hit a sweet spot with the once a month. We want to give our vendors, and also the public, the best product possible, and we think that this is the best way to do it.”

While many vendors’ artisanal products and specialty goods are aimed at adults, younger attendees can find their own niches too. Night market organizers also coordinate with the Marathon County Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department to offer complementing events.

“In July, there’s the Movie in the Park, so that’ll be running during the market and people can have their kids here … There are certain vendors that definitely cater towards kids and little stuffies or different trinkets and things like that, but it kind of depends on the vendors that night,” Hutchinson said.

No matter one’s age, the Wausau Night Market welcomes all. Earning the title of “Best Downtown Special Event” in the state by the WEDC, the Wausau Night Market offers a community-centric experience for visitors in addition to building opportunities for local business owners.

“Our mission really is to partner with the downtown businesses and to bolster them, and to bolster the economic development of downtown in general, while also creating a sense of place within Wausau, because we want people to love Wausau,” Hutchinson said.

The first Wausau Night Market of the summer is Thursday, June 18 on Third Street in downtown Wausau. For more information, visit wausauriverdistrict.org/wausaunightmarket.