The Bloomington Farmers Market

This is my poorly drawn map of the Farmers market here in Bloomington, including general foot traffic, entertainment, and a general layout of where things are are. Over the course of an hour, i noticed several things. The first being that while a lot of people did go there to get fresh produce, I saw a lot of people who walked in, and walked out with empty hands. The farmers market is just as much a social event as it is a marketplace. At the farmers market, theirs a good bit of open space, where people can walk around and talk with each other. A few of the people that I talked to usually end up spending most of their Saturday's there, because they will meet up with, or run into somebody that they know, and stay and hang out for a while. There were also a fair amount of musical groups performing around the market. Towards the entrance, there was a west African drum and dance group, further in there were a few guys strumming guitars and playing drums. Towards the center of the market was a country-folk band that was getting a bit of attention. Even if you weren't there to buy food, there was still plenty of people and entertainment to keep you busy for a while. Everyone at the market was pretty friendly as well. Typically in a Meijer or Kroegers, everyone is just kind of quiet and and trying not to make eye contact, with the occasional rude outburst from some lady in desperate need of the last pack of whatever everyone else happens to need. People at the farmers market we're willing to chat, and the performers/boothkeepers we're eager to talk about whatever it was they had going on, or what kind of music they we're playing. The market was a pretty cool place. It just seemed like everyone was engaged in some way. Everyone was interacting, be it just walking around, talking to friends, or clapping along to music, or running a booth/stall.