There will be an open-air vendor market coming to downtown Great Bend Saturday, Oct. 21, after the City Council Monday night approved the closure of the public parking lot at Lakin and Williams for the shopping event.

The market is the idea of Dighton entrepreneur Amber McMurray who has hosted similar events in Garden City. This one, to be dubbed Brews and Browse, is in partnership with Dry Lake Brewing. 

She requested council permission to close the lot for they myriad hand-made craft vendors. This event does not allow alcohol to be consumed in the parking lot.

“Most everybody that I was given names for were present and signed and approved it,” she said of a petition to allow the closing. “In fact, most of the businesses were very excited about it. They thought that it could be very beneficial for them that they would do some additional sales like on the sidewalk themselves, and I had nobody oppose it whatsoever.”

She was asked if she wanted the entire lot. “I don’t necessarily need to use the whole parking lot, but I if possible, sure,” she said.

“I’ve had about 15 to 18 people reach out to me so far,” she said of potential vendors. She knows Dry Lake has food trucks on Saturdays and she wants to align with that so this will be “just be a really fun event and really beneficial for some additional sales tax within your guys’ community, and bring some additional people come into your community.”

In most cases, the vendors are responsible for collecting their own sales taxes. Those that don’t will funnel them through McMurray “so everybody has to be legal.”

“I’m a small business owner,” McMurray said. She creates handmade holistic products and art, but she has done event planning in the past as program director for Camp Lakeside, a Methodist camp at Scott County Lake.

This will mark her third such event she’s hosted. She said the most recent Brews and Browse at a brewery in Garden City was a huge success and “it was just a really fun event.”

These are family oriented, she said. She will have face painter and other activities, so it’s not just for adults.

“It’s just a bunch of small businesses getting together to try to sell the products,” she said.