Downtown Alliance - Salt Lake City, Utah

When shoppers come next Saturday to this season's kickoff of Salt Lake City's Downtown Farmers Market, they will notice at least one big change: a larger market.

More fruits and vegetables. More arts and crafts. More prepared foods. More space.

Driven by its wild popularity, along with fire-safety concerns, the market is expanding to envelop virtually all of Pioneer Park.

Launched in 1992, the summer harvest-and-art extravaganza now draws a colorful community of about 10,000 customers each Saturday to the tree-canopied block between 300 South and 400 South from 300 West to 400 West.

The bigger market will allow a jump in vendors -- farmers, artists and prepared-food servers -- from 300 to 350, according to Farmers Market Manager Kim Angeli-Selin said.

Vendor fees will go up. Farmers will pay $225 to participate for the season rather than $196. Artist fees will rise from about $400 to $500. And prepared-food vendors will continue to kick in 10 percent of their sales.

The market's organizer, the Downtown Alliance, could end up shelling out more, too. In past years, the alliance paid a nominal $100 application fee to use the park. This year is different because of the cost-recovery-service fees that Salt Lake City now charges.

"We rely on what the Parks Department does to make the park look good for us -- and to clean up after us," Angeli-Selin said. "So we're paying that bill this year where we haven't before."

Those maintenance and cleanup costs could run about $10,000, she said. But a $2,500 credit and financial support from the City Council could enable the urban farm fair to break even.

"A lot of people on a small space hardens ground and wears out grass," city Public Services Director Rick Graham said. "So it requires extra care to bring it back."

When the 2010 market debuts next Saturday, farmers and artists will line the park's perimeter while the "Food Fairway" -- tents exuding the fragrance of on-site cooking -- will stretch from the center.

"We identified some safety issues with all our city events" -- and that meant making some changes, explained Salt Lake City Fire Marshal Martha Ellis. "We consolidated our greatest hazards -- the cooking tents -- allowing us better access and better separation from the rest of the vendors."

Jeremy East, of East Farms, eagerly awaits the market's opening. He represents a younger generation that typically abandons the family farm.

For 17 years, the Davis County resident has been bringing fresh-picked produce to the Downtown Farmers Market. Now, at age 29, East, who farms 300 acres in Layton, sees half his sales from Pioneer Park, where he meets consumers face to face.

"I would say that 75 percent of what we grow started with market requests." For instance, East now sells zucchini in four colors and three shapes.

"You won't find iceberg lettuce here," Angeli-Selin said. "You'll find a variety of 20 different lettuces."

Christian Harrison, a California transplant who heads the Downtown Community Council, calls the twice weekly bazaars (Tuesday evening markets start in August) a "minor miracle."

Harrison, who lives in a condo across from the park, hopes the increasingly popular market will showcase downtown as "an amazing place to play, to pray, to live and to work."