As part of its efforts to breathe new life into the ByWard Market, one local organization is turning to a chilly alternative: a winter market that will kick off in November.
The ByWard Market District Authority was formed at the start of 2024. Executive director Zachary Dayler said the organization has been working since then to implement the ByWard Market’s public realm plan and implement its mandate of revitalizing the visitor experience.
The winter months, he said, have plenty of untapped potential.
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“We’re starting to really lean into our potential as a year-round destination,” he said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job building our programming through the summer … but typically and historically, the offering in winter in ByWard has been limited to a certain extent.”
While the Christmas season brings trees and lights, Dayler said the Market was missing the thing that made it special in the warmer months: a market.
The lack of a winter market is mostly due to a gap in infrastructure to support vendors and their offerings in often freezing conditions, he said.
“It’s a fairly real challenge, the issue of power and water, in terms of making an outdoor market functional,” he said. “It takes a unique and passionate vendor to get out there in minus five, minus 10 degree weather to sell their goods. For us, it’s about making sure we have the right infrastructure to grow and support the event, which is not something we’ve had in the past.”
While there are plans for more permanent infrastructure to be built over the next few years, this year will feature a temporary alternative.
For the inaugural season, the authority has set up a container program, with 14 red, winterized eight-by-10-foot containers to house vendors from Nov. 22 until the end of Winterlude on Feb. 17. A call for vendors went out last weekend.
Entertainment offerings will lean into the winter magic, said Dayler, including wood and ice carving, taffy pulling, and the occasional local choir.
When it comes to vendors, Dayler said he wants the winter season to be special and different from what is available in the summer months.
“We’re looking for entrepreneurs,” said Dayler. “We’re looking for people who think they have that unique craft, or that art offering, or that unique bite of food. People who are putting together cultural crafts and celebrating their traditions. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re sort of throwing the doors open here.”
Like most cities that have traditionally had a snowy winter season, Ottawa has been impacted by climate change.
Warming winter weather has posed challenges for Ottawa’s winter tourism scene, which thrives on an abundance of ice and snow. The shortened window for the Rideau Canal skateway in recent years has forced local vendors and festivals such as Winterlude to reevaluate their strategies.
The winter market fits into efforts to diversify the city’s tourism attractions, despite the weather, Dayler said.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of up and down in terms of temperature and that’s leading people to explore in different ways,” he said. “We’re not trying to capitalize on a change in climate. What we’re trying to do is figure out what we can do that instills winter activities, regardless of what the climate is doing.”
Ensuring the ByWard Market is as vibrant in winter as it is in summer also meets growing demand, as residents and tourists increasingly turn to the area during the off-season.
“We actually saw last year that our January numbers were some of the highest visitations all year,” Dayler said. “It was relatively warm and more and more people were inclined to go out and take in the sunshine. The need is clear. And I think each year investing in the winter market, it will grow and become that anchor for the winter months.”
