Nanaimo Chamber planning downtown summer street market in 2018 Nov 26, 2017 3:43 PM

NANAIMO — As street markets explode in popularity on Vancouver Island, the Nanaimo Chamber wants to see the harbour city get in on the action.

The Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce is moving ahead with plans for the Commercial Street Night Market in 2018. President Kim Smythe said the plan is to shut down Commercial St. to vehicle traffic and setup a street market for 11 Thursday evenings starting in June.

Smythe said communities like Oak Bay, Sidney and Parksville raved about the success of their markets.

“Night markets are a great way to enliven a downtown’s nighttime economy. We had brought this up in the past…Everybody was favourable to it but nobody wanted to move ahead too quickly,” Smythe said.