Tumwater Farmers Market opens at a new site Sunday -- and there’ll be live entertainment

The Tumwater Farmers Market opens Sunday, May 2, kicking off the season with performances by Samba Olywa — whose drummers and dancers will be dressed as bees, butterflies and vegetables — and the masked musicians of the String and Shadow Cartoon Orchestra.

This is the first performance since the pandemic began for Samba Olywa, best known for providing the grand finale to the annual Procession of the Species. It marks a return to the group’s longtime tradition of playing for the opening of the Tumwater market.

“I’m so, so happy that we’re playing again,” said Juli Kelen of Samba Olywa. “The pandemic is still all around us, even though many of us are vaccinated now. … We’re so happy that the farmers market has decided that there is a way to go forward safely and that we can be a part of their opening day. It’s wonderful.”

It’s also the first official gig for the String and Shadow Puppet Theatre since the summer’s drive-in puppet show. The five-piece old-time orchestra includes a fiddling fox and a goat guitarist.

The return of live performances isn’t the only news at the market, which is happening not only on a new day but also at a new location, Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School at 237 Dennis St. SE.

Before the pandemic, the market happened Wednesdays at Tumwater Town Center and functioned mostly as lunch destination for state employees and others who worked in the center. Last year, the market offered only online ordering and curbside pickup, and it wound up closing for the season in mid-July.

“When all of the state employees started working from home due to COVID, our customer base was completely wiped out,” said Amanda Weyrauch, president of the market’s board of directors. “The location wasn’t conducive to anything outside of the lunchtime hour. We’d known that for years, and it was something we’d been talking about potentially changing, but this was a big kick in the butt to look at our operational model.”

The extended closure gave the board time to plan not just a new day and location for the market, but also a new mission, she said.

“We have a new focus on food access and on integrating the market into the community as a whole,” she told The Olympian. “Our lunchtime market had a lot more prepared foods. We’re trying to get back to the foundational energy of a farmers market with a focus on local fresh healthy fruits and vegetables and fresh baked goods and hand crafted goods from artisans and then yummy extras like barbecue sauce and kettle corn and ice cream and honey.”

As part of the focus on food access, the market is accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), EBT and P-EBT food-stamp benefits and participating in Washington state’s SNAP Match program, matching those benefits on the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables for up to $40 per transaction, she said.

There’ll be about 20 vendors on opening day, Weyrauch said, with more vendors applying all the time.

“We’re still ramping up,” she said. “I have a feeling that by the end of May we’ll start to see the market fill out and be closer to the 35-40 vendor range, which was what we were used to before the pandemic.”

And organizers hope to continue to offer live entertainment, which will happen at the far end of the market space, well away from the entrance and exit.

“Of course, we want to follow all COVID rules,” Weyrauch said, “but we definitely would love entertainment as long as it’s possible to do it in a safe way for everyone.”

Tumwater Farmers Market

• What: The Tumwater Farmers Market is starting its 2021 season with performances by Samba Olywa and String and Shadow Cartoon Orchestra.
• When: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays, May 2-Sept. 26, with grand opening performances by String and Shadow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Samba Olywa at noon
• Where: Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School, 237 Dennis St. SE, Tumwater
• More information: https://www.tumwaterfarmersmarket.org/

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 5:45 AM.