Looking at the overcast skies that threatened rain, Krystle Lugosoto wasn’t sure how she’d fare on opening day at the Saturday Market on the River.
“I was surprised at all the people who came out despite the weather,” said Lugosoto, an artist who sells her art and handmade jewelry designs.
This is her second season at the market, and on other Saturdays with cloudy skies, shoppers tended to stay away, she said.
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Saturday’s opening day started out slow but picked up as the day progressed, said Mary Anne Symms-Schweser, who has sold her Scentsy products at the market for about a decade.
She wasn’t sure how things would be. At the beginning of the market last year, there were still COVID restrictions and the season before the market was canceled for months.
It seems to be back at full speed this year, she said.
Last season she was closer to the entrance at Eighth Street, but she moved down to be on the opposite side of the market. In the heat of summer, the sun would shine on her products. Direct sunlight and wax don’t go well together, she said.
For Symms-Schweser, the market is not only a business opportunity for her, but it’s a way to connect with others – other merchants as well as regular customers – both of whom have become more like family than friends, she said.
“One lady comes every Saturday. She buys her lemonade and bread and stops by to see me,” she said.
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Not only was the market full of customers, but vendors were ”packed” in said Symms-Schweser.
Food and beverage vendors sold Korean and Colombian food as well as Kona ice, coffee, funnel cakes, fresh produce, local honey and baked goods. Other merchants sold clothing and accessories such as jewelry.
Closer to the Savannah River, Brandi Wallace of Wallace’s Farm of Hephzibah and her family set up a small petting zoo complete with baby goats, rabbits, a cow, chickens and ducks.
“We did this last year,” she said.
And it was a hit with child who cuddled with ducklings or touched the rabbits in their pens.
The Saturday Market on the River will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays until the season ends in November.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
