ChristKindl Market
66 Our Brown County Sept./ Oct. 2022
~ by Boris Ladwig
Brown County’ s Christkindl Market will return this
December with an extra day of food, festivities and fellowship to warm visitors’ hearts and provide an additional economic boost to artists, vendors, and tourism-related businesses.
The market this year will reveal its old-world charm Dec. 2-4, with festivities kicking off at noon Friday and ending at 4 p. m. Sunday. The festival’ s center will again be Coachlight Square, and family-friendly entertainment will return along with artists, musicians and vendors who will sell hot drinks and foods. Santa and Mrs. Claus will return, too, as will the 7-foot tall nutcrackers created by Nashville Spice Co. coowner Mark Schmidt.
Lisa Hall, a member of the event’ s steering committee and a Brown County Playhouse board member, said last year’ s inaugural event surpassed organizers’ expectations.
Hall said she and the other organizers were hoping for 1,000 visitors, but about 3,000 showed up, prompted by the event’ s novelty and the unusually warm temperatures.
“ We had an October weekend,” Hall said.“ It economically boosted the whole community.”
Some food vendors were a bit overwhelmed, and local restaurants had lines, she said, so this year’ s festival will feature even more food and beverage offerings. Hotel operators, too, reported more guests, and some of the hotels already are taking bookings for this year’ s event.
“ There were families and kids and people everywhere,” she said.“ People were dancing and having fun.”
The band Polkamotion will return to provide music Friday evening, and organizers plan to offer polka lessons. This year, Washington Street will be closed to provide more room, and the stage will be moved a bit away from the booths to make it easier for the vendors to communicate with their patrons.