CLOVERDALE - With two weekends left for the Surrey Night Market, organizer Satbir Cheema said he's learned a lot in the six or so weeks since the event debuted.
Having opened to what he described at the time as "an overwhelming response" by the public, when 8,000 or so residents flooded the market's opening weekend, things have settled at around 3,000 to 4,000 visitors per weekend.
And like any new venture, Cheema said he and his partners have learned a lot since the opening weekend.
"We've made some changes for entry points - two booths now, with two windows for each, that makes the flow very smooth, and try to make different adjustments to make sure everybody goes through to check out most of the vendors," he said.
Feedback has also been mostly positive, said Cheema, who noted that the biggest criticism has been that there aren't as many non-food vendors for people to shop at.
"People want to shop, so next year we're going to make sure we have enough of them," he said. "Next year we'll make it about 45 to 50 food stalls and at least 70 non-food stalls."
Currently, he said the food vendors have been very happy with business but some non-food vendors have said they aren't seeing the numbers they'd hoped for.
"Unfortunately it's not something we can control," he said.
With two weekends left, Cheema said they have some exciting plans, including a fashion show this weekend (Aug. 22 to 23) and possibly bringing in a bhangra group for the finale.
Looking to next year, Cheema said they're looking forward to expanding the operation with a new site layout as well as settling on a start date, and they might be able to do Sundays as well.
"Next year I've heard one of the Richmond Night Markets might also be shutting down," he said. "So we might have vendors from one of those night markets approaching us."
Cheema added that they're looking forward to having nearly a year to plan the 2015 iteration.
"This year we only had three or four weeks lead time to plan everything, get the vendors lined up," he said. "Now we'll have eight or nine months so we'll be better organized."
The Surrey Night Market runs on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Cloverdale Fairgrounds, at 17726 62 Ave. Entry is $2 and the market's last day of the summer season will be Aug. 30.
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