Sidewalk Days is one of Moose Jaw’s largest events of the year, bringing hundreds of vendors to the downtown and drawing tens of thousands of patrons to eat, browse, buy, and be entertained.
The three days of the 2023 Sidewalk Days festival will be July 6, 7, and 8 (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) this summer. Vendor applications opened Jan. 17.
Jacki L’Heureux-Mason, executive director at Tourism Moose Jaw (TMJ), has chaired the Sidewalk Days festival committee for the last 12 years. She said that last year was the most successful ever, despite it being a recovery year following the pandemic, while the committee is excited to try some new things for 2023.
“We got to carry over the exact same committee as last year, plus two people, which is awesome,” L’Heureux-Mason said. “That’ll make it easier for us to make some little changes this year.
“We’re really just looking at building on what we did last year, but we’ve got a few irons in the fire that we’ve been working on since the pandemic, so we’re hoping this will be the year.”
L’Heureux-Mason wasn’t able to provide all the details yet, but was happy to note that more than 20 vendors have signed up already, providing momentum for the festival right from the start.
“Last year, we were getting really close to that 22-to-23,000 mark, over the three days,” she added. “Saturday was probably the busiest day we’ve ever had, probably about 10,000 people were in the downtown on Saturday.
“We are fairly certain we’re one of the bigger free outdoor events in southern Saskatchewan.”
L’Heureux-Mason said the most challenging and most fun part of organizing Sidewalk Days is laying out where each vendor will set up. The map stays on her desk even after the committee has finished with it, and she will make changes up to the last day.
“If you want to see an interesting process, well, the mapping process is… I wouldn’t call it a nightmare, because it’s probably my favourite part of the whole thing, but it is complex.
“For example,” she explained, “I’d never put a clothing vendor right in front of a downtown clothing store, we don’t cross-book our businesses that way.”
A typical year for Sidewalk Days is over 200 vendors, with the food, jewelry, and art categories topping the list.
MooseJawToday.com will follow the preparations for the festival closely, so keep an eye out for the announcements of the vendor list, musical acts, magic shows, and more.
