By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
The San Benito Economic Development Corporation kicks off its Downtown Market Days Saturday, Oct. 12.
The event marks the first in a series of six to be held on the second Saturday of each month.
About 29 vendors selling various merchandise and foods are expected as well as musical performances Los City Boys and Madelyn Victoria, both of San Benito.
“(Los City Boys) are classic rock. I heard them play in Port Isabel once, and they do all classic rock,” said EDC Executive Director Salomon Torres. “They’re really good.”
Los City Boys will be performing at 9 a.m. while Madelyn Victoria is scheduled to hit the stage at approximately 1:30 p.m. following a ribbon cutting ceremony, which is expected at about 11:30 a.m. Market Days will come to a close at 2 p.m.
“So we’re going to have good entertainment from pretty much the whole 9 to 2 timeframe,” Torres said.
The EDC’s Market Days event is a kind of reboot of the previous festivities organized by the now defunct San Benito Chamber of Commerce. Torres remarked on the event’s conception.
“We’ve had merchant meetings since about April or so; I think it might have been since the May or June meeting that we decided to discuss the foot-traffic for downtown, giving the downtown more of a boost for the weekends,” said Torres. “From there we planned it.”
Held on Sam Houston Boulevard next to the railroad tracks and the Veterans War Memorial, Torres said that he hopes the event attracts people from the surrounding communities.
“You’re going to see a greater mix of people from the surrounding areas, not just local residents,” said Torres. “I think you’ll find a lot of Harlingen residents come and be curious about how this one will be different from Harlingen’s. Some people will recognize the two performers; so I know people who follow them will come as well.”
Such interest, Torres anticipates, may generate
“While they’re there, some of them are going to be curious about some of the downtown businesses that are walking distance. There are also a number of empty buildings, and we hope people who are interested in San Benito might ask about those properties,” said Torres. “Given those downtown meetings that we’ve had, this is actually a way to continue that dialogue with people in San Benito, because we’re going to get a lot of unsolicited advice after this first (Market Days). We’re not going to consider it criticism, we’re going to consider it input on how to improve the downtown as a business zone.”
1 comments
This just proves that the SBEDC does well on events such as this,but not large real estate ventures,Do what you know best,stay out of the real estate dept.,Clown Town doesn’t need anymore help than they’ve already got.
Have a safe and happy Halloween,clowners.