Melissa Calles, co-owner of West Streets Studio, saw the need: Buckeye residents and vendors have to travel East if they want to attend market events.
So, she created the solution: Buckeye's First Friday Night Market, beginning this evening.
Every first Friday of the month through April, the 6th Street Plaza will be filled with local vendors from 6-9 p.m., offering entertainment and shopping for Buckeye residents and surrounding cities. The event is free to attend and features approximately 40 vendors offering crafts, food trucks, artists, vintage items and more. Chevy's Appliances will give away a new washer and drier and there will be performances by Tradiciones Dance Company
West Streets Studio is located in Glendale, owned by Calles and Morgan Rae West. Calles graduated from Arizona State University's downtown campus in 2016 and recalled enjoying Phoenix's monthly First Friday event.
"When I moved [to Buckeye], now that I started a family, it was always something I was telling my husband," she told InBuckeye. "We need a First Friday here downtown."
"I'm in love with the potential of it," she said. "And just bringing more people into downtown Buckeye. There are a lot of businesses that are thriving. It's not just a town that you pass through on your way to California anymore."
When she announced the Night Market, Calles set of goal of receiving 15 vendor applications. By the time the application period closed, she had received more than 87, speaking to the need from vendors for a Buckeye market.
She's looking forward to seeing the community turn-out this evening, as well, and how the Night Market might contribute to the city's growth and health.
"It's nice to stay local and support local and kind of water our own grass," she said. "We have so many good things to offer and I want our community, because we have so many new people moving here, I want them to move here and let them know we have everything we need in Buckeye."
She also hopes her story will set an example to others, encouraging them to take a chance and to do their part to create the type of community in which they want to live.
"We can have that here," she said. "Why not us? We just need more people to step out of the box and just go for it."
