CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Market returns this weekend with the kind of mix that has helped it grow into what it is today: small businesses, food trucks, artists, makers and thousands of shoppers looking to put their money into local goods.
The market featured more than 100 local vendors from across the Cleveland area, offering everything from handmade goods and baby clothes to honey, popsicles, doughnuts and custom artwork.
For Kaitie Nickel, co-founder of Cleveland Market, that is the point.
"It means the world to be able to support their families and chase their dreams,” Nickel said.
Wesley the Keeper, with Akron Honey, was there selling different kinds of honey and drinks made with honey.
"We just want to make honey fun, and this is the market to do it,” he said.
Angela Barth, owner of SAGE Babes + Tots, said the market has become a favorite stop for her baby store.
"Cleveland Market is one of our most favorite weekends of the year,” Barth said.
Nearby, Pop Culture CLE was serving up popsicles and doughnuts from its truck.
“We’ve got doughnuts!” owner Nicole Dauria said.
But Dauria said the best part of the market is not just what is being served. It is who is showing up.
"The interactions with customers is everything because we’re here to serve them,” she said.
That connection is what organizers say the Cleveland Market is built around, giving local businesses a platform, while giving shoppers a way to support the people behind the products.
Another part is setting the stage for new ideas and businesses. Cristin Davidson, owner of CK Helen Studio, has been part of the market for years. But this year she brought along a new component: “bad portraits.”
These $3 portraits are less about perfect proportions and more about making people laugh.
The drawings may not be museum-ready. They may not even be refrigerator-ready. But they are memorable.
"I’m from Cleveland, and this is home to me,” Davidson said.
Davidson said the idea works because Cleveland gets the joke.
"Cleveland has its own sense of humor. We don’t take much seriously,” she said.
That sense of humor, mixed with food, art, shopping and small-business energy, is part of what has helped the market grow into a weekend destination.
The Cleveland Market continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
