Moonlight Market

I love the moonlight market! I had the chance to walk through and shop with different merchants that were lined up on Gay and Broad St. I loved the evening stroll after a great meal at a wonderful restaurant. I always look forward to this event.

I loved the Moonlight Market before, but I reeeaaaalllyyy love it now. Gay Street is my favorite street in Columbus (no, not because of *that*). It's in the heart of the ever-growing downtown scene, and it feels a bit more grown-up than the Short North... no shade thrown to the ShoNo. I feel like MM really celebrates all the great local businesses of Gay Street and then also highlights local artisans and musicians. If you went in the past when it was just getting started and had a smattering of booths--go back. This year it stretches down both ends of the street, and they're adding more vendors all the time. It really feels more like a street fair now rather than a craft show... no hate to the crafts. MM in 2015 has such a cool energy; it feels very alive and filled with cheerleaders for the city. While Gallery Hop can still be a good time, it really does have a bar crawl feel to it now. MM is just so fun to grab a bite at one of the delicious restaurants (I'd recommend the underrated Plantain Cafe) and then stroll up and down the street taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells that the city has to offer.Pro tip: Park in the garage at the corner of Elm & 4th. At only $1 per hour, it's a STEAL!

This is a neat little "hop" in the downtown area on Saturday evening. I've gone a few times here and there and they selection of local vendors is very good. So far, the food trucks have been hit or miss, depending on the weather I think. Unfortunately, the weather has been an issue on quite a few occasions the last couple of years, so make sure the Market is not cancelled before you go! I love the shops and restaurant scene along Gay Street, and most of them stay open later for the Market. There usually are a few street musicians you can stop and listen to as you walk. We typically only need about an hour to make our way up and down to check out all of the activity. I would love to see this continue to grow like some of the other area "hops" have!

What a fun event! And last night was an absolutely gorgeous evening for the event, with clear sunny skies early on and warm temperatures. The restaurant patios were hopping, and the shops were all open late. The pop-ups included a variety of tables, trucks, and carts featuring clothing, jewelry, handmade soaps, food, dog treats, and more.There were a number of entertainers and artists too. A juggler riding on a tricycle headed up the street, an artist was working on a painting, a group of a cappella singers, and more.Great way to spend an evening!

Attended this for the first time this past Saturday night. Some neat stuff. Got some T-Shirts at a great price.I expected food vendors, trucks maybe. Also expected a place to use the restroom without having to sneak into an establishment to do it. We had a few drinks before we went so... A portable would have been nice.Not my favorite Columbus event but not terrible either. Probably won't go back.

Last night was the first Moonlight Market of 2017 and as newbies to Columbus, we decided to give it a try. It was great to see so many people walking downtown. The weather was perfect and it was lovely to be able to stroll down Gay Street and browse. The music was varied and high quality.There are a few really good vendors. Some funny greeting cards made us chuckle, and there are more than enough skin care and candle vendors. Hoping that as the season proceeds there will be more and a better variety.The crowd was interesting to watch -- a little bit of everything: older, younger, people pushing strollers. Even saw one woman pushing an animal stroller holding a duck (what the duck?).Glad the merchants of Gay Street are behind this. We stopped into Buckeye Bourbon House for drinks and dinner afterwards. Would love to see some more special offers on Moonlight Market night.

I attended for the first time last weekend. I love the idea of Moonlight Market and the location of it. It's a nice thing to do on a weekend with good weather. I would definitely check it out once to have the experience. However, beyond going once, I probably wouldn't go again unless new vendors with bigger diversity are advertised. A lot of the booths were repeat items. The biggest offender I would say is jewelry. The jewelry is beautiful but...after awhile it just felt redundant. A few of the vendors had really interesting concepts and were a pleasure to talk to. Specifically there was a t-shirt vendor with their mission being to make shirts based on public experiences. These are supposedly submitted to them by the public from their website and are based on personal experiences or life stories to my understanding.All in all, it was a nice thing to do once and it was a nice walk for exercise.

Moonlight Market is a fun destination. Its's great to see all of the quality stuff local entrepreneurs are offering. I saw so many things that I wanted someone to buy for me. The night air was crisp and there were a lot of people shopping. After strolling around for a while my wife picked out some earrings from Poor Sparrow and I got a t-shirt from MadMark Legendgear. Be advised, you should carry cash to make things easier for everyone. There's an ATM in the Residence Inn on Gay St. We tried to go in Due Amici and Tip Top, but they were slammed, so we decided to travel on. It was a cool experience. If you're on the fence about this event I would encourage you to check it out.

I drove downtown about 6:00 p.m. and left to come home about 8:00. In between I had a nice dinner at J. Gumbos. And I roamed around pretty much everywhere. You couldn't have asked for better weather. The temp was about 70 deg. I ran into Liz M. who was working her booth. All in all, it was a nice evening!

Don't get me wrong? I looove the idea and location of the Moonlight Market. And I love these types of street markets in general. The only reason Moonlight Market is getting three stars is the lack of variety of vendors. I'd do 3.5 if I could, and easily 4 if they mixed it up even a bit more.When you visit the market, you basically get Ohio-themed tees, soap, vintage stuff, and jewelry; repeat. A few gems stick out here and there; I love the dude who has a pop-up used book shop that he takes to the street fairs and markets, his selection is pretty boss. What the Rock always has a cool booth. I like the *idea* of the vintage store in the vintage trailer, except that shopping would mean squishing in and it's already kind of claustrophobic even in the open air due to all of the people attending.Things that could be rad if they showed up: A flower vendor (how romantic to buy your partner a small bunch of flowers while you're walking in the moonlight? SO ROMANTIC), a pop-up record/music store to go with the pop-up bookstore, a Wholly Craft booth, maybe some kind of paper goods like posters/cards/etc (Igloo Letterpress? On Paper??). Maybe they did have some of these things and I missed them . . . Gay Street was a bit crowded last night. I'm hoping at some point they will actually shut Gay Street down for the market. It's not *necessary* to drive down Gay to get most places and it would provide more room to browse (and GTFO of the way when you're not browsing). It was honestly hard (for me at least) to stop and look at many vendors for more than a second, because if you did you were holding up a lot of traffic. I hate holding people up, so if I wasn't able to get off the sidewalk and browse, I didn't browse.So, yeah. Love the idea of it. Love the location. Love street fairs. Hoping this one will continue to evolve.