The 2022 Market will run every Friday from 9am-1pm from June 3rd to September 30th.

The 2022 market will run every Friday from 9am-1pm from June 3rd to September 30th.

The market takes place in Jess Price Park in the heart of Westcliffe, CO. We will have live music, children’s activities, ample signage, event promotion, and food trucks on site.

Event Address: 315 Main St, Westcliffe, CO 81252

https://westcliffefarmersmarket.com/

Each vendor space is approximately 10X10 feet, we due have room to accommodate larger setups and also have paved spots for trailer-ed units/food trucks. Jess Price Park is fairly flat, has trees for shade, full service bathrooms, and has nicely planted grass. The city does not allow tent stakes due to the underground irrigation system so tent weights are required. Vendors must be ready to start selling by 9:00 a.m. when the market opens, and should remain set up until 1:00 p.m. when the market closes.

Vendor Fees – We are waiving the $50 vendor fee for the 2022 Market Year if your business attends the first three markets in a row. Full time registered vendors will pay 2% commission of their daily sales to the market as fees on produce/agricultural products and pay 5% commission of their daily sales of non-agricultural products to the market in fees.

Drop in vendors who did not register before the market starts are welcomed and will be charged a 10% commission of their total sales paid to the market as fees. Any drop in vendor who attends three markets in a row will be considered full time and will be eligible to pay lower market fees.

All vendors are required to provide proof of insurance for their business. This is a requirement from our insurance provider and has to be submitted to ensure your market approval. We have created an insurance scholarship program for the 2022 market year. If you are interested in attending the market but do not have the monetary means to pay for insurance, eligible vendors can receive partial or full payment for their insurance from the Westcliffe Farmers Market Scholarship Program. Please reach out if you are interested in attending the market but are unsure of your ability to pay for insurance. Approximate cost for market insurance for the year is around $170.

“Business Licenses are required in the Town of Westcliffe to operate within the Town. It shall be unlawful for any person or legal entity to engage in the business of selling tangible property at retail or engage in providing commercial services within the incorporated Town without first having obtained a license issued by the Town. The annual fee is $40.00. All businesses that sell retail merchandise or provide taxable services are required to obtain a State of Colorado sales tax license prior to applying for a Town of Westcliffe Business License. The Colorado Department of Revenue collects the sales tax on behalf of the Town of Westcliffe.”
https://townofwestcliffe.colorado.gov/town-services/business-licensing

Please fill out the form below completely and we will reach out to you shortly with any additional forms or questions we may have. Thanks in advance, lets make this a great year at the market!

2022 Market Registration Form

We are still looking for more vendors, especially produce, food, cottage food products, etc. We also love our craft vendors, so please don’t feel like we don’t want you as well. We are prepared to open on June 2 and as it stands right now, if you would like to join the market let me know.

One of the requirements for joining the market is that you must have a Town of Westcliffe business license and I have now added a link on the Calling All Vendors page to the town’s site for those requirements which has a link there for the license application. I did read that before you apply for the business license, you must have a Colorado state sales tax license and that does take a bit of time to get. We do need copies of both of those as well as a copy of your insurance that includes Westcliffe Farm and Makers Market as an additional insured.

We hope to see you all for market opener on June 2nd.

We are posting today to let all of our followers and customers know that we are planning for the 2021 market season. This is just the first step in getting the word out that we will be having our market on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. starting on June 2nd, 2021.

We are looking for vendors to fill out our market, especially produce vendors (since we ARE a Farmer’s market), but all other types of vendors, as well. We do ask that if you would like to vend at our market that your inventory be something that you grow, produce with your own hands, or something that you put significant work into. We do have limited space, so we may HAVE to limit the numbers of like items.

This year is still going to be a little bit different from previous years because all of our vendors will have to produce and acquire their own market vendor insurance with Westcliffe Farm and Makers Market as an additional insured (and make sure that we have proof of said) and each vendor will have to acquire their own sales tax license from the town of Westcliffe (which we will need a copy of). The market will no longer be collecting and submitting sales tax for the vendors.

The forms for vendor registration and application are available on this website under the tab Calling All Vendors. If you want to be a part of the market. please visit that tab and get a more in depth view of what is required.

Another piece of information…the market is looking for a new market manager. This is a very part time position (10 – 12 hours per week). The market manager is responsible for running the market. taking care of the vendors. collecting fees and paperwork from the vendors. and weekly data entry for the market. If this is something you might be interested in, please call Lynda Hitt at 719-213-9498.

I want to start this post with thanking the the town of Westcliffe, the community, our vendors and our customers.  YOU are what makes our market successful and what gives our market it’s flavor and atmosphere.  We have been blessed with excellent vendors, wonderful volunteers that bring our music and take care of the business part of the market, and mostly stellar customers.

After much thought and discussion, we have decided to cancel the 2020 market season.  With the craziness that is going on in the world and because of the many different restrictions that are being placed on all  markets, we have decided that it will not be feasible to have the market this year.

One of the restrictions that have been placed on the markets include not allowing any of the craft vendors to participate.  The powers that be are concerned that having a full market won’t allow us to keep people moving and safe.  Because those requirements are in effect, our market would be less than 10 vendors (more like 4 or 5).  This is not sustainable and while we are sad not to be in the market, it’s the best decision that  we could make for this season.

I have seen that Canon City’s market has decided to do a virtual market.  Someone tagged me in a post on Facebook that we should do the same thing.  I think that we should try it on our Facebook page and give our market’s customers and vendors a place that they can connect.  I think the easiest way to do that is to have the vendors post what they have, with their contact info and pictures, and then customers can contact the vendors with what they want.  Our Facebook page is here and as it gets going, hopefully, we’ll have vendors and customer’s connecting.

We will be back in 2021, stronger and ready to see everyone again…don’t for get about us!

What a crazy world we are living in…I don’t think that any one of us could have foreseen what would be going on during the planning stages of the market for this year.  With that said, we are planning to have the market this year, although it will look considerably different.  Our choices for this season were to completely cancel the market or to follow the guidelines and change the appearance of this season’s market.  We chose the latter because we believe that the market is important to our community and we don’t want the community to lose that or to forget about us.

Farmers markets have been deemed as essential and that is what is allowing us to plan to set up the market with our food vendors.  Because of the social distancing and the covid-19 virus, we have tentatively made the decision that we will have the market and invite all of our produce and food vendors to come and set up to provide fresh food for our customers.  We know that this leaves all of our other vendors kind of out in the cold, but the guidance that we have had access to for continuing the market this season is that we have food only and don’t have a “normal” market this year.

There will be some precautions that we have to take to keep everyone safe, but I am excited to get the market under way.

We will be making another post around May 1st when we find out exactly what the requirements we will have to add to the market to have the 2020 season.

If you have any questions, please send us an email at westcliffefarmersmarket@gmail.com.

 

 

The Westcliffe Farm and Makers Market starts this Wednesday, June 12th.  The market opens at 9:00 am and runs until 1:00 pm.  We have several vendors committed to the market so far this season and are looking forward to seeing all of you.

We will have several craft vendors, produce and personal care vendors.

Our last post set out requirements for our vendors to acquire liability insurance for this season.  It was kind of sprung on us at the “last minute” so to speak, which would require our vendors to scramble for getting insurance.

Our insurance company has given our vendors a reprieve and has said that it would be put off until next season.

If you have already acquired insurance, thank you.  It is a good idea to cover your product and your booth in case of theft or some other occurrence.

If you have any questions, you can message me here or through the facebook page for WestcliffeFarmersMarket.

The 2019 market season is fast approaching.  Our first market this season will be Wednesday June 12th, 2019. We are looking forward to seeing our returning vendors and new vendors that would like to join our market for this season.

We have a new requirement this year, that we learned of as we were starting the renewal process for this season, that has been imposed on us by our insurance company and their underwriters.  All vendors will have to have liability insurance to set up in the market. What that looks like is a general liability policy that includes product liability.  Your policy should have a $1 million per occurrence with a $2 million aggregate.  We will have to have proof of your insurance before you are able to set up in the market.

We have done some research and if you join the Colorado Farmers Market Association      http://www.cofarmersmarkets.org )  for $50 a year, you may be able to get vendor insurance for as little as $275 per year.  You may also be able to obtain insurance from your own insurance agency if you let them know what you are looking for.

You can get the information you need to join or re-join the market under the tab at the top of the page that says “Calling All Vendors”.  We will need to have both the vendor agreement and the vendor application filled out and sent to us at the address listed on the forms.  Please make sure you read the vendor agreement as that has what you are agreeing to to participate in the market.  We will also need to have a copy of your insurance.

I know this is a bit of a shock, as we have never had to require this before.

The first three weeks of the farmer’s market are under our belts.  We are pleased with the vendors that we have this year, and we keep adding to the variety as more vendors hear about our market and want to come and participate.

Something that has been quite beneficial to the market this year is that we have food vendors that are offering attendees and vendors alike choices in actually having something to eat while at the market.  We have a vendor that is cooking up Sangre’s Best Beef and offering cheeseburgers and hotdogs fresh off the grill, served with salad, dessert and a drink for a reasonable price.

We have the Rocky Mountain Food Truck setting up in the market on Wednesdays.  They are offering breakfast for the early birds and then switching to lunch later in the morning.  Last week she had street tacos that were a big hit with everyone that I spoke to that ate lunch there.

Another vendor that is bringing fresh produce, pasture raised chicken, pork and beef is Nola Naturals from Howard, CO.  They were at the market last year and for people that are looking for organically raised meats and other produce, they are a good place to look.

On a less happy note, the market has been informed by the Town of Westcliffe that having the market at Jess Price park is a safety hazard.  They are saying that starting next year, we will no longer be able to rent the park and hold the market there.  They have yet to let us know where they want to move us, but if you like having the market easily accessible, please let the powers that be know that moving the market is not in the best interest of the town’s residents or the market.

I have created a petition at the following link:  Save the Market petition and if you would like to let the “powers that be” know that you like having the market where it is and would be willing to digitally sign the petition, please click on the link.

Come out and join us at 9:00 tomorrow morning to get your fresh vegetables and other goodies from the market.  We are open on Wednesdays from 9:00 to 1:00 and would love to see you there.

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