The Downtown Improvement Board has announced it will reopen Palafox Market on October 3rd at its regular location in MLK, Jr. Plaza in Downtown Pensacola. The iconic farmers market has been closed for several months in response to the City’s moratorium on public events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a carefully planned, phased reopening, Palafox Market will launch with about half its regular vendors, showcasing food, farm produce and products geared towards safety and sanitation such as handmade soaps and face masks. Organizers are working hard to ensure that shoppers and vendors can enjoy the market safely.

To minimize crowding and maintain social distancing guidelines, the market layout will be temporarily changed, with vendor booths arranged in an alternating pattern so that half of the booths face out towards Palafox Street and half face in towards the MLK, Jr. Plaza walkway. Organizers plan to expand Palafox Market back to its full capacity as quickly as it’s possible to do so without negatively impacting COVID numbers.

Additional vendor and visitor safety precautions include, but are not limited to:

●  Increased physical space between vendors.

●  Face coverings are required by all in attendance.

●  No vendor shall provide/offer samples, unless individually packaged.

●  All vendors will be required to wear gloves (and gloves must be changed regularly.)

●  All vendors will be required to display products at the front of their stall. Customers will not be allowed to enter vendor stalls to avoid crowding.

●  Security will be present to monitor large groups of people and assist with controlling proper social distancing.