There won’t be a farmers’ market downtown tomorrow. Julie Townsend, executive director of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority, sent out a notice Friday that the event has been canceled due to expected high winds and rain.
The message, which was shared by email and on social media, read:
We are canceling the Farmers Market for January 6 due to every weather forecast we have checked predicting sustained winds of 10 mph or higher, gusts of 20 mph or higher, and a rain chance of 85% or higher during the peak of the Market from 10am-2pm. Being an outdoor market, our vendors are used to rain, but high winds create potentially hazardous conditions for both vendors and customers. We will resume our normal schedule of being open every Saturday from 8am-2pm on January 13.
It’s the second time in less than a month that the market has been canceled. The Dec. 16 market was also called off due to high winds that can topple tents and send canopies airborne.
The cancellations have been a stroke of bad luck for market organizers and the 150 vendors. The weather was clear on the weekdays leading up to both stormy Saturdays.
“It’s highly unusual. In the 20 years that we’ve done this, I think it’s unprecedented that we’ve canceled two markets, two months in a row,” Townsend said.
She added that the decision to cancel wasn’t an easy one.
“It just kills us to have to cancel a market. We really grapple with it,” Townsend said. “We don’t cancel just for rain. But it’s the combination of a 90% chance of rain plus the high gusts of wind that are a dealbreaker for us. We just can’t risk it with public safety.”
Windblown vendor tents can become projectiles, and “I can’t have someone impaled at my market,” she said.
Although vendors will lose potential sales, Townsend said they get credit for any booth rental fees they paid.
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