Zach Kerchensky comes to the Greensburg Night Market because he knows it’s a good way to get the word out about his original artwork.
He said the same goes for the other vendors and small businesses located on South Pennsylvania Street where the market is hosted monthly April through December.
“(It) gives them a little bit of fame,” said Kerchensky, 39, of Apollo.
At the market he sells acrylic paintings that he creates collages over. As he set up on Thursday afternoon, Kerchensky was sporting a T-shirt he made with a print of Elton John.
About 170 vendors, food trucks and musicians took over the four blocks of the street on Thursday as they prepared for the second market of the season. Tents filled parking spots, tables lined the streets, vendors displayed their homemade goods and the scents of hot food drifted through the air.
Beyond the economic impact, Danette Freeman, who founded Danos Towels and Things, said she and her husband, Earl Freeman, go to the market to meet other vendors.
“It’s more fun for us to watch the people and make new friends,” she said.
Freeman, who sells handmade tea towels, wallets and gnome welcome hangers, among other things, said the night market makes Greensburg thrive because of all the people it brings in.
“It’s like Frogger getting through,” she said about trying to walk through the crowd during the market.
Lori Lentz from Vnlla Cncpt, which sells pure extracts, such as vanilla and almond extracts, said she keeps coming back to the night market because it is always well organized and it always brings in a lot of foot traffic.
“I can’t say anything bad about this market at all,” Lentz said.