The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
No Main Street Marketplace today
TORRINGTON » The Main Street Marketplace will not be held this Thursday evening due to the threat of inclement weather.
The forecast calls for lighting and downpours, Main Street Torrington President Kris Roberts said Wednesday, as opposed to just showers, which prompted organizers to cancel this week’s iteration of the event.
“It becomes a safety issue for us,” said Roberts.
About 1,500 feet worth of electrical wire is laid down on Main Street to power the various booths and vendors at the Marketplace, Roberts said, which is of particular concern.
The decision is not an easy one for the group, Roberts said.
“We agonize over it,” said Roberts.
Organizers consulted with local weather forecasters before making the call this afternoon, she said, and will now work over the next 48 hours to give vendors scheduled to only attend this week of the Marketplace another spot in the street fair.
By cancelling the event today, the hope is to allow vendors time to react, according to Roberts.
“We decided to make a decision this afternoon in order to give our vendors enough time to plan accordingly,” said Roberts.
There are no rain dates included in this year’s planning for the Marketplace, according to Roberts, due to the difficulty of planning around car shows and booking the street for uncertain future needs.
Next year, Roberts said, the group plans to hold the Marketplace on Wednesday evenings, which will allow them to have Thursdays as an alternative in case of inclement weather.
A bit of good news, Roberts said, did come through in the aftermath of the decision. Musical artist Gloria Gaynor, the scheduled mar- shal for the evening’s festivities, will instead appear as a guest at the July 27 iteration of the street fair.
According to a release from organizers, she will take part in a meet-andgreet from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“We were very glad to get confirmation from her,” said Roberts.
Canceling the Marketplace is uncommon, Roberts said — it’s only happened three or four times, to her recollection, in the history of the event.
She’s hoping that “a massive crowd” comes out on July 20 to attend the event, as residents have in the past when the event is cancelled.
The Marketplace opened for the season July 6. It was scheduled to run each Thursday evening from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. until Aug. 3.
Main Street Torrington, a nonprofit organization headed by Roberts, took over management of the annual event in January 2016.