It is providing another opportunity for families to participate in a family event while promoting the small businesses. It’s going to promote those businesses, giving them traffic they might not have otherwise.
HARLINGEN — For merchants like GayLynn Foster, the new Downtown at Sundown festival is drawing zesty Saturday night crowds into shops along the city’s historic Jackson Street business district.
Last summer, city leaders launched the street fest, setting it on the third Saturday of the month across a stretch from Commerce to First Street, Alexis Riojas, the downtown district’s director, said.
“This is a great way to showcase the shops and make downtown Harlingen a destination,” she said. “It’s attracting our community to explore what downtown has to offer.”
Then last month, Foster and merchants along the 100 and 200 blocks of Jackson Avenue pushed officials to extend the festival from Commerce to Third Street.
“It’s our life’s blood,” Foster, owner of The Hive, a boutique featuring eight vendors, said. “Our entire block has worked really hard to help grow this event. We have been very successful. It helps us meet all our ends. Without it we would definitely be struggling.”
Family events
Along palm-tree lined streets standing before rows of historic brick buildings dating to the city’s founding, Downtown at Sundown is quickly turning into one of the city’s biggest events, a sizzling street festival featuring live music, eight food trucks, a beer and wine garden along with a growing list of vendors whose numbers are closing in on 100.
“You’ve got a whole different group of people in the evening,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said. “It’s really growing — this has been community driven. It is providing another opportunity for families to participate in a family event while promoting the small businesses. It’s going to promote those businesses, giving them traffic they might not have otherwise.”
At City Hall, officials are focusing on developing events aimed at offering families entertainment.
People are excited — it’s for the family. You’re able to go shop. A lot of people didn’t know about downtown.
After decades, the city’s Market Days continues drawing more than 5,000 residents to the Jackson Street district on the first Saturday of the month.
About five years ago, officials launched Art Night, now bringing hundreds downtown on the last Friday of the month.
Now, Downtown at Sundown is becoming the first event opening the downtown area to a Saturday night crowd that’s quickly grown to about 500.
At the corner of Commerce Street and Jackson Avenue, Carmen Garza helps man Jackson Street Antiques, the family-owned business that’s helped turn the Jackson Street district into an antiques mecca.
“It’s great. I love it,” she said, standing in the city’s oldest building boasting its original tin ceiling. “People are excited — it’s for the family. You’re able to go shop. A lot of people didn’t know about downtown.”
Market Days at night
Last summer, an afternoon at Market Days led City Commissioner Rene Perez to call on the community to help develop the city’s next event.
“I wanted the people’s feedback,” he said. “I wanted to know what they wanted.”
So Downtown at Sundown sprang out of his Facebook post, Perez said.
“I got a couple of thousand likes, responses and comments — ‘We want a market days at night,’” he said. “It was by far my most popular post. The people of Harlingen were hungry for something at night.”
Now, Perez said officials are working to expand the festival.
“We want this to be the premier Saturday night event,” he said. “We’re trying to expand it. We want more vendors. I want the same thing we have at Market Days at nighttime. We want to fill the streets. I want an event that’s not only family-friendly but for couples on date night.”
Helping downtown businesses
At the corner of Jackson and A Street, Downtown at Sundown got Lars Keim’s trendy Jackson Street Cork N Craft bustling.
“It’s one of the few nights we have 10- to 20-minute waiting lists,” Keim, chairman of the city’s Downtown Improvement District board, said. “It’s exposing people to downtown who may not have been here before.”
The city’s events have grown along with the downtown area’s booming business district.
“We do the events for the merchants,” Bill DeBrooke, a property owner who launched the downtown area’s revitalization more than 30 years ago, said. “We want to create a workable, sustainable and viable retail environment.”
Now, he’s counting on Downtown at Sundown developing into one of the city’s biggest events.
“The event draws a much younger crowd. It’s really cool if we can keep bringing younger people downtown,” DeBrooke said. “It’s just another thing that’s going to help the merchants. The antique shops have gotten on this horse early. The antique shops and the gift shops are benefiting. People are standing in front of the businesses wanting to buy something. It’s good for downtown and it’s good for Harlingen.”
I don’t want to be in business anywhere else in Harlingen. We’re a team all pulling for each other. There’s a family feel to downtown. There’s a charm you can’t find anywhere else.
Background
In the late 1980s, rows of empty storefronts lined the downtown area in the years following Valle Vista’s Mall’s opening in 1982.
“It was like a ghost town,” DeBrooke said.
Today, a lone building stands vacant, he said.
Meanwhile, more than 100 merchants have opened shop in the stores along the Jackson Street business district, he said.
Since 2001, Foster’s been in the boutique business there.
“I love downtown,” she said. “I don’t want to be in business anywhere else in Harlingen. We’re a team all pulling for each other. There’s a family feel to downtown. There’s a charm you can’t find anywhere else.”
