CLOVERDALE — As the first of its kind to open south of the Fraser, the Surrey Night Market was expected to be popular.
But not even the organizers were fully prepared for the massive turnout during the opening night on Saturday at the Cloverdale Exhibition Grounds.
Organizer Satbir Cheema said he was very pleased with how the first night went but they were not expecting the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 attendees.
"They kept pouring in and obviously we were not ready for that huge a crowd but now it gives us some time over the next four or five days to prepare for the next weekend," he said.
The crowd was so big that some people waited more than 45 minutes to get in and some vendors ran out of food in the first two to three hours.
"Because we didn't anticipate it would be that huge a crowd we only had two ticket vendors, next time we will make sure we have more," said Cheema.
As the lines became worse, Cheema said that organizers began letting people in for free because they had waited for so long.
Twitter user @Courneey_ stated that "as one of the vendors at the #Surreynightmarket I can honestly say we DID NOT expect such big crowds!Everyone will be bringing WAY MORE food."
It didn't take long for others to share their opinions on the social-media platform.
@RBCRandyChin said "Attended the #Surreynightmarket Saturday. Good food choices, ran out of food, bad lineups, too few merchants, @SurreyNgtMrkt will improve!"
@peppersp said " Got an awesome parking spot @surreynightmarket, left after seeing the 500ppl lineup that wasn't moving! #disappointed try again next week?
Organizers have already made a number of changes and will be adding more ticket windows, at least 500 more parking stalls, better parking control, and more services for people with special needs.
"We will open up a separate line for persons who are handicapped and people with really small children because those people don't need to wait in the queue for that long," said Cheema.
Despite the rough start, Cheema was positive and said that they learned a great deal from the opening night.
"I'm sure we could have done better but it is a learning process with our first effort; a humble beginning. The public and the community was very supportive."
Next weekend will be the official ribbon cutting and opening ceremony on Friday night from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cloverdale Exhibition Grounds in front of the Agriplex (17798 62 Ave.).
The market runs Fridays and Saturdays until the end of August from 6 to 11 p.m. Admission is $2 and free for anyone shorter than 48 inches. Parking is free.
For more information, go to surreynightmarket.com
To check out the photo gallery from opening night, click here.
matt@mattlaw.ca