Overview:
During the State of Downtown event, Mayor Jerry Dyer announced a survey where Fresnans can vote to bring back the street market portion of Art Hop on the first Thursday or first Friday of every month.
The hall of The Grand 1401 erupted in cheers when Mayor Jerry Dyer announced the return of the street market portion of ArtHop during Thursday’s “State of Downtown” event.
Last July, city leaders decided to split Art Hop into two separate events, eventually creating Why Not Wednesday to replace ArtHop’s outdoor street fair component.
Now, the city is inviting residents to vote whether to bring back the street market to the first Thursday of the month to align with ArtHop or host it on the first Friday of the month.
“We in the city are 100% committed to making that happen,” Dyer said, explaining that meetings have been held behind the scenes to bring back the street market.
The anonymous survey asks participants to choose between the two day options and closes at midnight on April 23. Access the survey here.
Results for the survey will be “shared in an announcement to be scheduled in about a week,” according to a news release by the Downtown Fresno Partnership.
“We want to invite you to make the decision on when the street market makes its return,” said Elliot Balch, the President and CEO for Downtown Fresno Partnership. “One choice aligns the event with ArtHop and the other activates a new night of the month.”
Fabio Linares, who operates vintage store Bad Kids Club, said the return of the street market portion to ArtHop is a step in the right direction.
“We can point the finger and talk about a lot of things that went wrong but I think moving forward, this is the right step,” Linares said.
Linares, who received the Downtown Fresno Partnership 2025 Activate It Award for his business, also explained that Why Not Wednesday shouldn’t be discounted for giving the city lessons on how to organize a mass monthly event.
“‘Why Not’ addressed a lot of the complaints of how ArtHop was set up before [regarding] bathrooms, security, street closures…because we’ve addressed [that], that’s why I think the city is so confident in being able to bring Art Hop back,” Linares said.
According to City Council Vice President Miguel Arias, however, there is still no final decision about bringing back the street market, explaining that multiple questions still linger concerning costs and funding tied to hosting the street market portion of ArtHop.
“We don’t have a date certain yet, the stakeholders still have to come up with resources to cover the cost, they would also have to come up with the cost for public restrooms, additional security, insurance, contracted policing, amongst other things,” said Arias in an interview late Thursday.
Despite this, Arias said that Why Not Wednesdays created structure for the city to more effectively collaborate with businesses downtown and ensures vendors have appropriate permits and licenses while keeping costs for vendors low.
“The reality is unregulated street festivals are not in the interest of any community and put participants and vendors at risk,” Arias said.
