Eugene Saturday Market

Eugene Saturday Market
A vendor's craft booth at the Eugene Saturday Market
Genre	Craft Market
Dates	April–November
Location(s)	Eugene, Oregon, United States
Years active	1970–present
Website
www.eugenesaturdaymarket.org

The Eugene Saturday Market is an outdoor craft market in Eugene, Oregon. It is the oldest weekly open-air crafts market in the United States. It has a festival atmosphere that includes live performers as well craft booths and food vendors. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people visit the market every Saturday.

The Eugene Saturday Market first opened on May 9, 1970 with 29 vendors. It was located on city property adjacent to a city-owned parking structure in downtown Eugene. Each vendor paid $1 to participate. On the opening Saturday, it rained all day. Nevertheless, the market was successful enough that the Eugene City Council agreed to allow the hippies to continue using the site. More vendors joined the market as the Christmas holiday approached. The first season closed on the Saturday before Christmas with about one hundred vendors crowding into the market area.

At the end of the first season, established businesses adjacent to the Saturday Market venue petitioned the city to close or move the market. Lane County commissioners offered a county-owned plaza, the Park Blocks, in front of the county courthouse for the market on condition that the Saturday market incorporate and secure liability insurance. As a result, the Eugene Saturday Market was officially established. This arrangement with Lane County allowed the use of the Park Blocks only during the summer months. In the fall, the vendors were required to move to the upper level of a county-owned parking structure, known as the "butterfly lot", across the street from the Park Blocks. The Eugene Saturday Market continued to operate in those two locations until the end of the 1982 season.

Over time, the Saturday markets held in the parking structure lost their customer base. As the number of vendors dwindled, the Saturday Market board of directors began working with the City of Eugene and Lane County officials to find a new venue. In April 1983, the Eugene Saturday Market was relocated to a two-block park area at the intersection of Oak Street and 8th Avenue. This new venue was an attractive setting and had enough space for 100 to 125 vendors. It was also centrally located in the downtown areas. Over the years, this has helped attract people to the market. In 2006, the City of Eugene prepared a master plan for the Park Block area. The plan included the Saturday Market as an important element in the area's long-term development. Today, the Eugene Saturday Market is the oldest continuously operating weekly open-air crafts market in the United States. It inspired the creation of a similar market in Portland, which took the same name, the Portland Saturday Market, and has been in operation since 1974.