Moonlight Market to welcome Farmers Market Season

To celebrate the upcoming start of the Farmers Market Season, Medical Center Hospital will be hosting its first ever Moonlight Market which will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.

Attendees will get a chance to experience Odessa’s only market under the stars for the family and pet-friendly event that evening which is being held to celebrate Farmers Market Season which will start next month.

Friday’s Moonlight Market will include live music, food trucks, fresh baked breads and pastries, locally crafted items, produce and more.

“The Odessa Farmers Market has been here for quite a few years,” MCH Community Relations Coordinator Susan Thornton said. “This will actually be our eighth season that we have the Odessa, Texas, farmers market. We thought this year, we would offer the moonlight market as a way to kick off the farmers’ market season to celebrate summer and to celebrate the farmers market season and to give people a taste of what our farmers market will be. We’re having what we call a moonlight market. The moonlight market will also have vendors and live music. We’ll have food trucks out there. We just thought that this would be a really good way to get everybody ready for Farmers Market Season when that comes in June.”

Farmers’ Market will take place on the fourth Saturdays of June, July, August and September.

This year’s time and dates for the Farmers Market are 9 a.m. to noon, June 26, July 24, Aug. 28 and Sept. 25.

As far as the reason for having a Moonlight Market, Thornton said MCH was looking for a way to remind people that Farmers Market is around the corner.

“We were thinking that this would be a great way to introduce the market season to those who aren’t familiar with it and safely celebrate outdoors the beginning of summer and all that holds,” Thornton said.

In regards to COVID safety protocols, Thornton said they will have the vendors spaced out on Friday.

“We just ask everyone to be safely conscious of where they are with their own health and if they’re not feeling well, to pass on coming,” Thornton said. “But we also ask everyone to be aware of where they are in their own health considerations so masks are encouraged if people are wanting to wear those. But we’ll be outside and safely distancing.”

Thornton said the Moonlight Market will be a good sampling of what most of the items the Farmers Market will entail next month.

“Obviously it’s a little early for some of the produce vendors although we will have a little bit of that as well,” Thornton said. “But we’ll have some local artisans, some locally crafted items. We will have baked items, jellies, local honey so there will be some variety of things out there in the parking lot and we’re looking to have a good representation of what our market will show when we come in June.”

The Odessa Farmers Market’s goal is to encourage health and wellness to the area by providing a Farmers Market where the community can purchase a variety of locally-grown, farm-fresh produce.

“Honestly, the vendors and customers make our market community,” Thornton said. “They’re what make our market community so special and we couldn’t do markets like the moonlight market and the Odessa Farmers Market without them so we appreciate the support from the community but we especially appreciate the support from our vendors.”