Though it was brought up earlier this year as the market adjusted its policies for the 2023 season, organizers of the Town of Lexington’s weekly summer market say there’s no need to be competitive with that big market in Columbia.

The Market at Icehouse continues to house local produce and artists each Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., during the warmer months at the pavilion attached to the Icehouse Amphitheater (107 W Main St.), and Walker Brewer, the city’s downtown venue promoter said he feels no need to rival Soda City, the large-scale year-round market that takes place on Columbia’s Main Street.

Brewer told the Chronicle the market offers a unique experience that benefits the town's citizens and locally grown produce and stands on its own.

“Our market provides a different experience than Soda City, we want the Market at Icehouse to be an equal option,” he said. “By providing a great experience at the market, we can provide the citizens of Lexington an option that is equal.”

This is a different viewpoint than what was reported earlier this year when Brewer spoke to The Post and Courier, expressing his ambition for the market: “We want it to be a coin toss between us and Soda City.”

That reported goal came as the market updated various policies to improve for 2023, including requiring a $5 deposit for vendors to hold their spots, limiting the number of vendors of the same type at each market to two, and limiting vendors to only posting up a maximum of every other week.

That last change isn’t hard and fast, however. Brewer told the Chronicle that while artists and non-produce vendors are allowed to attend nine markets this season, produce and farm-based product vendors are allowed to come to as many markets as they want.

But in interviews with the Chronicle, Brewer and multiple vendors emphasized that presenting Lexington residents with a well-managed local market option is enough to make the Icehouse event work for them.

The market — which will operate in 2023 from May 20-Sept. 30 – has been housed at the amphitheater since 2019. It previously occupied other spaces around the Main Street area. Upon arriving at its new location, the market, previously called the Lexington Farmers Market, changed its name.

“As more development comes to Main Street in Lexington, it only offers more options for people coming to the market,” Brewer said. “The coming retail and restaurants will only bring more people to the Market at Icehouse and Main Street Lexington.”

Those new food and drink options include several right at the Icehouse Amphitheater, including Barrio Tacos + Tequila + Whiskey, which is set to open in one of the buildings that shares a parking lot with the venue, and TakoSushi and the wine bar Molto Vino, which are set to open immediately across West Main Street.

The market's proximity to local farmers has proved to be beneficial.

The Backyard Provides, owned by Clayton and Ashley Downs, is a newer Icehouse vendor and focuses on selling microgreens and a few different

The Downs, which opened for business in February of this year, said that they chose the Lexington market due to its convenient location.

“It's nice to be able to see people face to face and have those personal interactions with them,” Clayton said. “If we had a storefront and we sold out of that store, it may be a little different but this is our opportunity to meet our customers in person.”

According to Clayton, his business has been able to establish a returning customer base since their first appearance at the market on May 20. While the business primarily focuses on microgreens and limited produce, they do hope to expand their product.

Gilbert’s Carrie Brown, a co-owner of The Chicken Coop at Brown Farm, echoed many of these points, stating that the proximity of the market is why they chose it.

Her business sells a variety of chicken eggs, plants, produce and some sourdough breads. Brown said that while the categories of their products have remained the same, since joining the market in 2021, they have expanded the variety of their items.

“We started with chicken eggs, we have so many chickens and eggs and the kids would actually sell the eggs at school to teachers and friends and then they kind of got too old where it was not cool anymore,” Carrie said. “We just had a ton of them and we always had a huge garden. We’d always give our produce to friends and family and so we decided to try and get some of our money back so to speak and it's just been so much fun.”

According to Carrie, they had never attended the market prior to becoming a vendor but have been pretty happy with their experience. She said Icehouse’s marketing brings in a good crowd and has allowed them to establish regular customers, some even coming to the farm during the market’s offseason to purchase eggs.

Examples like this, Brewer said, are exactly the point.

“You know ultimately we want to be able to showcase our local bodies to showcase what's being grown and dealt with in Lexington County and the surrounding areas,” he explained.

The Downs expressed a similar sentiment, with Ashley telling the Chronicle that supporting local farms and vendors allows people to know where their food is coming from.

And perhaps being at the market will allow them to find new outlets to sell their goods.

“We're hoping that we can make contacts here with like, maybe Private Property, or some of those local restaurants,” Ashley said, “and hopefully we can connect with them and get our microgreens to some of these local restaurants here in town.”

Ron Brown, co-owner of  The Chicken Coop, told the Chronicle that their farm has not looked at other markets and considers themselves a “market niche farm.”

“For us starting kind of small, you know, we're still learning about just running your business and this gives you a nice, one-day-a-week starting point to really just try to figure it out and learn how to do it,” Carrie said. “I think it's great for the business and also for the community to have access to some small businesses that they can shop and not necessarily have to just go straight to Amazon.”