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Hanford Insider: Celebrating 24 Years of the Thursday Night Marketplace

• Rob Bentley

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Step right up to the vibrant pulse of Hanford's community heart, the Thursday Night Marketplace, as we chat with Jim Castleman about its 24th-year celebration and the exciting expansions in store. This episode is your VIP pass to the latest local news. We raise our glasses to Laura Lutz, the Soropitmist International of Hanford Teacher of the Year, and keep you looped in on must-attend happenings, from the High-Speed Rail open house to enriching local school and church events.

Savor the taste of community spirit as we spotlight the Thursday Night Marketplace's culinary scene, boasting six new food truck vendors that promise to make your Thursdays the highlight of your week. Feel the warmth of local camaraderie at downtown treasures like Zaytoona, Quesadilla Gorilla, and El Tarasco, and learn how their synergy with the marketplace is a recipe for economic zest. We'll also honor the farmers who are the backbone of our fresh produce and give a nod to the Acai Bar for hosting us. Tune in for a symphony of flavors, culture, and the dedicated efforts that go into stitching this weekly fabric of our downtown Hanford, where every penny spent is an investment in our beloved community's growth.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!

Speaker 1:

On this week's episode. Jim Castleman from Main Street, Hanford will give us a preview of the Thursday Night Marketplace that starts this week. Rob will give us a community news update and review some upcoming events and I'll be back to update you on all of the high school sports action. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, April 29th.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, rob Bentley. Thanks for listening. In community news, the next Hanford City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, may 7. The following evening, on Wednesday May 8, mayor Travis Payton and Vice Mayor Mark Kyrus will be hosting a community meeting in the City Office Training Room from 6 pm to 8 pm. This is your chance to ask them questions and give them input. I'll have them both on next week's show to give some more information about this opportunity for you to speak with them directly. Last Wednesday evening the Revenue Measure Committee concluded their five-week study on the City's financial situation. They heard from each of the City's departments and even had a field trip to tour some of the areas of concern. At the end of Wednesday's meeting they voted to send their recommendation to the city council for further consideration of a sales tax increase to help fund police, fire, streets code enforcement and other needs. The city will receive the presentation from RMC Chair Martin Devine at the May 7th study session. I'd like to give Laura Lutz a shout out for being selected as the Seroptimist International of Hanford Teacher of the Year. Laura is the Burris Park Outdoor Education Leader. She was featured on the December 3rd edition of the Insider. Congratulations Laura of the Insider. Congratulations Laura.

Speaker 2:

Here are some events coming up on our community calendar. On Tuesday, april 30th, the California High Speed Rail will be holding an open house at Hanford West High School from 5 to 7 pm. The Patty Dance Studio will be holding their annual Cinco de Mayo celebration on 7th Street in downtown Hanford on Friday, may 3rd, from 5 pm to 9 pm. Also on Friday, heights Catering on 10th Avenue will be holding a Friday night food market. Taking a look at the calendar, saturday May 4th is an extremely busy day here in town. Let's go over the events. The Hanford branch of the Kings County Library will be holding their spring book sale from 10 am to 2 pm. The Sierra Pacific High School Band will be holding a citywide shredding event from 9 to 1 at the district office located next to Derwiener's Nest on Lacey Boulevard. The Salvation Army is holding a youth game day beginning at noon. The Remington will be holding a Mother's Day vendor fair from 10 to 2. The Remington will be holding a Mother's Day vendor fair from 10 to 2. The Pioneer Middle School Band Boosters will be having their Battle of the Bands beginning at 3 pm at the campus at 101 West Pioneer Way On Sunday May 5th, gonzales Fosso Florist will be holding a Mother's Day pop-up shop For you.

Speaker 2:

Car show enthusiasts. Mark your calendars now for the Glad Tidings Church Car Show on Saturday May 4th from 9 until 2. The Victory Life Living Word Church will be holding a show on Saturday May 11th at their church on Cameron Street starting at 11 am, and the 3rd Annual Carnegie Museum of Kings County Downtown Hanford Car Show will be held on Saturday June 8th. Registration is now live at carnegiecarshowcom. I'll be grabbing events as I see them on the Hanford Sentinel calendar and social media pages. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. Well, it's that time again. It's Thursday Night Marketplace in the Hanford Civic Auditorium Park and we are privileged to be here with Jim Castleman from Main Street, hanford. How are you doing, jim? Good Rob, how are you? I'm doing? Great, hey, jim. So how many years has Marketplace been going now?

Speaker 3:

Well, this will be its 24th year. Wow. So we had one year where we had the COVID and had to really downsize the market, but it's been going on for 24 years. We started in 2000. What a run. Yes, I started out as a volunteer in 2000. Currently I'm president of the Main Street Board, but I've been involved in the music with the market for all 24 of those years.

Speaker 2:

So 2024 looks to be a little bit different. Some changes. We've noticed some of the improvements going on in the park and stuff and that kind of impacts the setup for Thursday Night Marketplace. Can you give us a little sneak peek at what everybody's looking forward to on Thursday night?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, unfortunately, you know, the park got pretty beat up over the winter so we had to make some changes. They've planted the grass new grass on the west side of the whole park the Irwin Street side and so that really affects us. So we're going to move off the grass just about 100 percent, unless it's a tent. All of our food vendors will be parked along Dowdy Street, facing into the park. They'll be parked along the front of the Civic Auditorium and then parked on the Irwin Street side, facing into the park as well, as the farmers will be right up against Irwin Street and into the park as well. So everything will be facing into the park, but there won't be all the stuff that you saw inside the park. It to be staying off the grass as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

So one of the things that I see in the marketplace is I see a lot of people bringing blankets and chairs, so this will actually open up more space for them to be able to do that.

Speaker 3:

Totally. The whole center of the park will be open to come down, throw out a blanket, bring your lawn chairs. We've got more food vendors than we've ever had. We've got more vendors than we've ever had. In fact, we have a waiting list of vendors. There's so many people that want to participate in the market blankets, lawn chairs, people buying from the food vendors, coming back and eating at their blanket, listening to the music, because the music's loud enough to hear around the whole park. So it's just a nice night out in downtown Hanford. It doesn't really no entrance fee, easy to come down, you don't have to spend a lot of money and you can have a great night out with your family.

Speaker 2:

So I just thought about this. You know blankets, chairs. What about pets? I see, sometimes I see people on pets and I know on the street there was concern. But now that it's in the park, what's Main Street's policy on pets at the Thursday night marketplace is?

Speaker 3:

within the beer and wine garden, and we're not quite sure what we're going to do about that yet, but last year we had a couple of dog fights and we had, you know, somebody, a dog, take an ice cream cone from a kid, and I mean. So it gets intense in there, sometimes with a popular band, and you know, we'd like to, hopefully they'll stay on leashes and people will, you know, hopefully have them behave. We don't really have a policy though.

Speaker 2:

So you mentioned the dance floor. Let's get right to it. Tell us about some of the groups that you have lined up for the entertainment this year.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I'm really excited about that. We've got 10 brand new groups that have never been at the market before. We've got some younger groups that we've pulled out of that are very popular out of some of the different areas around us the box, vibe, check, josh day band, some some younger bands coming in. Of course, our regulars, you know, august will kick it off again, like it normally it has for years. A califas will be here, but the 10 new groups I'm I'm excited about, uh run for Cover will be here, gen FM Travis Brooks, locally. So there's going to be a lot of new excitement about the bands, I think. So hopefully people will check them out on their Facebook pages or their YouTube and come out once they find out if they like the type of music. But I think everybody's going to be really pleased.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've noticed on the social media oftentimes during the week talking about bands. They provide your social media. People there at Main Street will provide links to some of the groups so people can check out their social media, youtube links and such like that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we try to do that as much as possible. Link to the band so that people can check them out.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about the food truck situation. You know people think of food trucks as tacos or churros. You know barbecue trailers, but there's a lot of different kinds of foods that are going to be available and some of those food trucks actually have blossomed into businesses downtown. Let's highlight a few of those.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, we're actually sitting in one right now. The Acai Bar had a food trailer out at the market for the last three or four years, I believe, and the Ola Cafecito has been out to the market, but that's happening. Fatty Albert's has been out to the market for years now and when they first came to town they started being part of the market. This year we've got probably six new food truck vendors and some of our regulars, but there's going to be something for everybody, from a hamburger to a hot dog, to tacos, to burritos, the Hawaiian barbecue, you name it. There's going to be a lot of choices out there for the whole family. So we're excited about that. We've got more food vendors and more vendors in general than we've ever had at the Thursday Night Marketplace. It's going to be bigger. It sounds maybe weird the way that we're setting it up, but I think once people get used to it and find out the open space it'll be and where they can come with family, I think everybody will really like it.

Speaker 2:

And I think it also attracts people to downtown, to other businesses. I think of not only the two that you mentioned, but I think of Zaytuna and El Tarasco. Hop Forged, the hamburger place across the street from the police station of Superior Dairy. A lot of these businesses are gaining additional customers as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's a really good point, rob. I've talked to most of those businesses that you just mentioned and they have all told me, probably for the last 10 years, that Thursday night is their busiest night. When the market's going from May to October it's their busiest night of the weekend. They're all doing land office business. If you walk around and I challenge everybody out there, just walk around from Lush to the Superior, to El Tarasco, to Fatty Albers, to Zaytuna, to any quesadilla gorilla to acai bar, they'll all be full on Thursday night marketplace and sometimes when it's really hot, they're all full until about 7 o'clock and then people will come into the market. So you know and I don't want to leave out our farmers either We've got some really dedicated farmers and it's really great to have that ability to buy fruits and vegetables farm to table, where I mean, if you've ever had a, you know, a fresh broccoli out of the fields or anything like that, it's got a whole different flavor than what you buy in the supermarket.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So this is my opportunity to give everybody at the Acai Bar a big shout out. So this is actually our second time that we've recorded on location at the Acai Bar and they've always been a great host, and I was speaking with them earlier about their special Thursday Night Marketplace hours for them to be able to expose more people to their product and just the cool place that this is. So I just want to thank everybody here for hosting us once again. So let's talk about some of the vendors. Let's just say that the Hanford Insider Podcast will be at the first marketplace. I'm pretty excited about that, talking and meeting some of the listeners who have been supporting this show since August. What about some of the other vendors? I know you have the book lady. We've had her on the show. There's lots of different vendors, I think of COS. Just tell us about some of the vendors you have lined up.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, rob, there's all kinds of information. There's craft vendors, there's all kinds of information. The junior colleges are out there. You can get all kinds of information from lots of people. You know I'm not as privy as our director would be to all of them. I've been really busy trying to book 27 bands, I think so, and so I've got a big budget and we're just proud to say that we really have bands all the way from, you know, from Porterville to Fresno, to Visayta, to Larry, to Hanford, to Lemoore. So it's a really good cross section of bands from the whole Central Valley.

Speaker 2:

So one of the common questions that we get about Marketplace is why can't it go longer? I know you know, but could you kind of share with our listeners as to what kind of effort goes into this and why maybe it couldn't go a few more weeks or months?

Speaker 3:

It's a ton of effort Behind the scenes. People do not realize how much work it really is to put on an event and if you've ever been involved in a one-time event you know how much that is. Well, this is 27 events every week, from the first Thursday in May to Halloween. This year, actually, the very last market this year is going to be on Halloween night and we're going to have the Marie Wilson band in from Fresno. She's from England and she has numerous bands like a Fleetwood Mac cover band, really, really good, played at the King's Brew Festival for years. It's going to be here on Halloween night. So a lot, you know security and porta potties and encroachment permits and a dance permit and where we have to rent the park. There's just a lot of work and a lot of costs that goes into it every year.

Speaker 3:

And all the money and we're proud to say this all the money that Main Street makes from the Thursday Night Marketplace or any of our events, all of that money is spent in downtown Hanford. For example, witches Night Out. We buy goodie bags for all the witches that are on the street. We spent $30,000 in goodies to put in those bags and all those goodies were bought from our downtown businesses. So in one event we spent over $30,000 in downtown Hanford. So all of the money is earmarked for downtown. You know, yes, we put on events and yes, it looks like we're making a lot of money every night at the Beer and Wine Garden and all that, but it all goes back into downtown. So every money that you spend at the Thursday Night Marketplace it goes back into downtown. Anything that we make to the good goes back into downtown Hanford.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because I know Main Street is not only a party planner. It seems like from the surface, but the downtown businesses know that there's things like facade grants and I know they're involved in several here on this property.

Speaker 3:

We do all kinds of things downtown. If you've got a business and you want to paint the outside of your business or put new awnings or do signage, we offer grants to do that. We have a listing of all the empty spaces downtown so we're always trying to interface with people and trying to fill those up. So there's a lot that we do that goes behind the scenes that people don't realize. Plus, we're social media. We're all over social media, marketing Hanford to all the surrounding areas. We had a heat map this year that showed us where all the people were coming from. They were coming from as far away as Kerman, Madera to Porterville, to the Foothills, to Corcoran, Avenel, Kalinga, where all these people are coming from to visit our city, the influx to our city, to find out what we're all about. I don't know how the city could not be just ecstatic about that in marketing their community.

Speaker 2:

For sure. I know that, being on the board at the Carnegie Museum of Kings County we do studies, similar studies, as to people who come into town and we had a recent tea ceremony and it was a small event but it was amazing how many people came from out of town. So definitely these kinds of cultural events, social events, allow people to kind of experience Hanford.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they experience that thing that. I don't know how many people here in the community realize it, but this downtown park, Courthouse Square, is probably one of the most significant architectural parks in the whole valley. You can go from Modesto to Bakersfield. You will not find anything like this with the architectural gems that are up in this park, and we should be so proud of that as a community. That is the heart and soul of Hanford. When you have visitors come to Hanford to visit, where do you take them? You take them downtown, you take them to the park. They look at all these buildings and they go oh my gosh. You know, this is like a part of America we thought we'd never see again Because those were built in the late 1800s. I mean, it's amazing what we have here.

Speaker 2:

It's so awesome, so awesome, so let's wrap this up here this Thursday night coming up. Can you let us know the hours of the marketplace? And I know there's like the farmers can't sell their products until a certain time. Can you give us some of those specifics on the time and days?

Speaker 3:

Actually everybody starts showing up about 3.30 to set up. Five o'clock is usually when things start pushing towards opening and then 5.30 is when farmers can actually sell their produce and things. Actually we can start serving beer and wine. Music starts at six and goes till nine. Then we spend probably two hours of trying to make the park look like the park again in the morning. So basically you can come down, we're ready to go by five o'clock. Farmers can't sell produce to five 30. And that's just given people a chance to get off work, get down to the market.

Speaker 3:

And it's really interesting. You know, over all the years we have three distinct crowds. We have an early arriving crowd that come in for their fruits and vegetables and some of those folks you can see them with three or four bags full of fruits and vegetables. They go home. We have the foodies that come in for all the food and the families and sit out and eat and come down for dinner. And then we have the beer and wine garden and the dancing and the band. There's a little bit of overflow between the music and the foodies, but it's really three distinct crowds. There's people that come down. They want to dance, they want to hear some good music and have a great time, and in 24 years I can tell you that I have heard this so many times, and so many people from other communities come up to me and say thank you for what you guys do. We wish our town did something like this, and so the Thursday night marketplace is sacred to me, and I think it should be sacred to anybody in this community.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, let's take care of it and make sure it continues. The Thursday night marketplace will continue on until Thursday, october 31st, halloween night, and every Thursday, with the exception of maybe some warm weather. What's the warm weather policy this year?

Speaker 3:

So we aren't holding a market on July 4th and the heat policy is 106 degrees. So if anything pushes that, if it gets predicted, it's going to be that we cancel on Tuesday. So we're watching the weather and if we see it's going to be like that, we need to cancel on Tuesday, because we need to give everybody a heads up the bands, the vendors, and so that's when it happens. But it's 106 degrees.

Speaker 2:

So make sure you follow Main Street Hanford on social media so you can get that alert when they give out information about the marketplace. Once again, Jim, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for having me. It's always an awesome experience and we look forward to seeing everybody at the Thursday Night Marketplace this Thursday yeah we'll see you on the streets, and if you come up to me and mention that you heard me on the Hanford Insider, I'll buy you a beer.

Speaker 2:

Hey, you got to come by my booth. Thanks again, jim. That was great for Jim to be able to stop by the show and share with us about all the exciting plans for the Thursday night marketplace. I wanted to let you know that I'll be having a booth set up at the marketplace directly across from the Bastille. I'd love to see you. Make sure you stop by and say hi, and I've got some free giveaways for you. I hope to see you there, and now it's time for Hanford.

Speaker 3:

Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

Speaker 1:

In baseball action, sierra Pacific was able to improve to 6-4 in league play and 16-8 overall after picking up a pair of wins against Central Valley Christian. The Golden Bears were victorious 6-5 at home before hitting the road and getting a 4-1 win. Hanford High split their pair of games with Tulare Western faltering on the road on Tuesday by a score of 4-2, before bouncing back at home on Thursday with a 9-4 victory. The Bullpups stand at 7-4 in WIL action, 13-10 overall. Hanford West was unable to find the win column, losing to Exeter at home 9-3 and on the road, 4-1.

Speaker 1:

The Huskies are 2-8 in Tri-County Sequoia League play and 7-16 overall, and sticking with Hanford West, but on the softball side, where the Huskies had the offense rolling as they took down Sierra Pacific on the road 15-11, before falling to Reedley in another high-scoring game 13-12. Hanford West remains at .500 overall on the year with an 11-11-1 overall record. Hanford High was able to pick up an 8-2 victory over Lemoore at home on Tuesday before Dinuba was able to get the better of the Bullpups on Thursday. Hanford High are 2-4 in league action and 9-14 overall, and four in league action and nine and 14 overall. As for Sierra Pacific, unfortunately the Golden Bears were not able to pick up a win in their three games last week, falling to Hanford, west Kalinga and Kingsburg. As always, we want to give your teams the coverage they deserve, so send any stories, stats or scores to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's podcast. If you enjoy the show, leave a review on my website. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday. You can also send me feedback by voicemail through the website by clicking the microphone icon. I'd love to hear from you. Your comments may even be shared on the show. I also need your help getting the word out. You can do that by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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Rob Bentley

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