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A one-off night market featuring new small businesses while showcasing reggae music and norteño bands will be held in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday, July 25.
Market con Amigas will bring more than 30 vendors, including food and arts and crafts, to Old Courthouse Square. Lead organizer Miriam Vazquez has high expectations for the event, as it will serve as a trial for possible future markets in town.
“We want to create opportunities for entrepreneurs with new ideas,” she said. “This is just going to be this year. It really depends on how it goes.”
This evening event is the offspring of Eventos con Amigas, a Latina, all-women networking group that gets together monthly to support one another and discuss their businesses.
At the night market, everyone is welcome to be a vendor —men or women— even if they haven’t participated in Vazquez’s events before.
“We are all about diversity,” she said. “There are a lot of businesses coming out.”
Vazquez currently lives in Geyserville with her husband and children at their winery, Pastori Wines. She organizes networking events throughout Sonoma County, including Santa Rosa, Windsor, Geyserville, and surrounding areas.
Since Vazquez was nursing the idea of hosting a market, her cousin Araseli Sanchez, a small business owner from Santa Rosa, joined her to set everything up.
“I’ve experienced firsthand how these events create a welcoming space to connect, collaborate, and genuinely support one another,” Sanchez said.
Market con Amigas’ vendor booths will range from clothing, jewelry, and handmade products to food. Expect to see snacks like prepared Maruchan ramen as well as tacos, tortas, churros, and other desserts. The music lineup will feature reggae band Roots Fusion and norteño groups Efecto Diferente and Vales del Rancho.
Sonoma County is home to several seasonal night markets, including regular events in Sonoma, Rohnert Park, and Cotati. In addition, non-weekly and roaming markets are a local fixture, such as The SoCo Market in Santa Rosa and similar night events in Forestville and Guerneville.
Across the rest of the North Bay, Marin and Solano counties host between one and three weekly night markets each, while Napa relies more on monthly events.
According to the Santa Rosa Wednesday Night Market’s website, the average nightly attendance is 7,000 to 9,000 people. If a person spends $15 to $25 on food or crafts, a single night can generate $100,000 to $225,000 in revenue.
Vazquez, who also owns a beauty salon in Windsor, said her evening event aims to offer something unique not typically found at local markets.
Market con Amigas is set to run from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 25.
Raquel Issenberg covers Latino business for the North Bay Business Journal and is the editor of La Prensa Sonoma. She can be reached at raquel.issenberg@pressdemocrat.com.
