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LOGAN SQUARE — The beloved outdoor Logan Square Farmers Market is back this weekend with an opening market featuring more than 100 vendors.
The Logan Square staple, named Chicago’s best farmers market in the Reader’s “Best of Chicago” issue for four consecutive years, kicks off 9 a.m. Sunday along Logan Boulevard between Milwaukee Avenue and Whipple Street.
Organizers are going big for the first market of the season, hosting about 125 vendors, dozens more than what’s typical, said Nilda Esparza, the Logan Square chamber’s executive director. Markets throughout the season usually feature about 70 vendors, Esparza said.
The expansion is made possible through the city’s Open Boulevards initiative, which launched earlier in the pandemic.
Logan Boulevard from Milwaukee to Sacramento avenues will be shut down to drivers for the opening market, giving vendors and shoppers more room to spread out away from drivers, Esparza said.
“It allows us to showcase everyone who applied,” Esparza said. “All of the new vendors and new products will be lined up along the northern end of the boulevard.”
On top of bountiful produce and farm products, the market will feature live music and informational booths helmed by local organizations.
This year’s market will run 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 29. Open Boulevards will return for closing weekend.
“Our farmers are eager to serve. They’re all super duper excited to be back,” Esparza said.
Organizers opted against hosting a winter market in 2022 after years of struggling to find a suitable location for the indoor event, instead deciding to throw a series of smaller pop-up markets at Solidarity Triangle at Milwaukee, Diversey and Kimball avenues.
Esparza said they plan to keep the pop-ups going this fall and winter.
“The fact that we didn’t go indoors awarded the organization five months off, as opposed to five weeks off. That time really allowed me to have robust conversations with vendors for different shifts that needed to be made,” Esparza said.
“I’m really feeling at ease and comfortable that we’re going to be giving people an even better experience even though we’re in the same location.”
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