The Best is Back!
The Kenosha HarborMarket, the city’s original European-style outdoor shopping and entertainment experience, has launched its 2022 outdoor season – the 20th in its history — with a large number and wide array of vendors offering fresh produce, ready-to-eat foods and a cornucopia of arts and crafts.
Customers can shop over 100 vendor booths every week and find the diverse array of local products that they’ve come to expect from Kenosha HarborMarket vendors. They can their bags – one is never enough! — with fresh and local produce, meat, poultry, cheese, flower bouquets and plants, baked goods, pantry staples, soaps, arts and crafts and more. Treat your taste buds to delicious foods and beverages from over a dozen unique prepared food vendors.
“We’re excited to offer the robust all-around experience for the community that Kenoshans and our friends near and far have enjoyed for two decades,” HarborMarket Executive Director Andrea Forgianni said. “We’re adding new vendors every week, so there is always something original to discover at Kenosha’s Original HarborMarket.”
The market, voted Best Event in Kenosha last year, is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 29, at its traditional location: on 2nd Avenue and Place de Douai, one block west of the lakefront museums.
It’s more than just a shopper’s paradise – it’s fun for the whole family. Families come down to 2nd Ave to enjoy the scenery, with abundant green space, shade trees and Lake Michigan a stone’s throw away. Thousands of people every week enjoy the sounds of an eclectic mix of local musicians performing on two stages.
Also on-site are fun activities and community resources for all ages, including the Kenosha Public Library Bookmobile, Versiti blood drives, Pedal Tours and local dance and dramatic arts groups demonstrating their talents. HarborMarket is also honored to provide free booth space to up to two local nonprofits every week.
In keeping with its community-minded mission, last year Kenosha HarborMarket facilitated the spending of over $16,000 by SNAP beneficiaries on local produce, meats, eggs, cheeses and other foods. This year, more than 30 vendors are participating in the program. HarborMarket will continue to match up to $20 per beneficiary per week.
“We’re so thankful to our customers and vendors who return week after week and year after year,” Forgianni said. “The organization continues to grow into its new leadership, always keeping the core of its original mission, crafted some 20 years ago, in the forefront – to bring a plethora of producers of fresh foods and goods directly to customers in a location specifically designed to make shopping not just a stop, but an experience.”
Kenosha’s Original HarborMarket was named one of “13 Farmers’ Markets Worth Traveling For in 2017” by Bon Appetit Magazine. HarborMarket was also named a Governor’s Tourism Award Nominee.
“With so much to offer, we’re thrilled to be able to deliver that HarborMarket experience and ambience that is second to none, one that customers have enjoyed since 2003,” Forgianni said. “Really, we’re maximizing the potential of our location with all of its greenspace and tree canopy over the course of the season.
“Stay tuned – we have plenty of surprises in store!”
More information, including the weekly vendor map, can be found at kenoshaharbormarket.com
Article was submitted by Gary Schneeberger, board member of the Kenosha Harbor Market.
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(This article first appeared in the Downtown Kenosha Magazine Summer 2022 issue)
