As the Verde Valley transitions into spring, the days are getting longer and the evenings are getting magical, as the light lasts well into the later hours. Spring marks the return of the Old Town Music & Market, and vendors from across the valley and beyond came to hawk their wares to the sound of local music, all while the sun slowly falls below the mountains and tinges the sky with a brilliant array of colors.
The City of Cottonwood changed the schedule of the market last year to avoid the monsoons that hit in the summer. Like in 2018, the 2019 market will be held every Thursday in May and June, before taking a hiatus for the summer and returning in September.
“A lot of the times during July and August, during monsoon season, it was getting rained out,” Josh Frewin, an employee of Cottonwood Parks & Recreation who is organizing this year’s market, said. “So we made the move to be May, June and September. Still every Thursday night, at 5 p.m. until dark. So that will be the same.”
This past Thursday, May 2, Keith Okie & Friends performed on the stage overlooking the grassy field of the Old Town Activity Park, playing music for relaxed summer night vibes, with acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and djembe drumming. Folks were dancing — a chilled out hippy sway as everyone let their hair down and let the music move through their bodies.
Other attendees brought lawn chairs or blankets, while children ran around the park with abandon. Seemingly every dog in Cottonwood was in attendance, playing with each other or just staying close to their owners.
“This is the first big people outing the dogs have had,” Lori Henderson said as she tried to wrangle two excitable cocker spaniel puppies, Freckles and Willow, she had brought to hear the music. “It’s good. They’ve had to deal with all the kids running around and everything they’ve never been exposed to. We usually come out to listen to the music.”
Michael Owen, a former resident of Nashville, Tenn., who moved to Cottonwood just 10 months ago, sat with a group that brought multiple dogs, including a large friendly labradoodle named J.D.
“The people and the dogs and the music — what’s not to love?” Owen said. “The community, coming from a town of 2 million, it’s just lovely. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I love it out here.”
Owen spoke highly of Sun Valley Harvest, a new vendor at this year’s market. Kevin Fitzgerald and his wife Tina sold assorted mushrooms — not just the common ones you can find in a supermarket but cordyceps and oyster and all sorts of fungi that made bizarre gnarled shapes.
“We want to move up here, especially this time of year,” Fitzgerald said. The mushrooms were mostly grown in a grow house in Glendale, but there are some logs with native oyster mushrooms growing on them in Cornville, and the Fitzgeralds had been drawn in by the farm- er’s market there. “We kind of gravitate towards the area.”
Sherea Hoffman manned the stand for the Oak Creek Apple Company, another new vendor at this year’s market. She sold lotions and vinegars made with apples and often infused with other substances such as CBD oil with an aim of aiding arthritis, inflammation and other such conditions.
“We were in Sedona, so we’re close by, and thought it would be worth it to give it a chance,” Hoffman said of the market. “I think it’s awesome. Good vibes and there’s good people. It’s definitely one of the coolest markets because it’s pretty easy going.”
