Newmarket downtown businesses are praising the first-ever Ice Lounge event, which brought thousands to Main Street over the weekend.
The Town of Newmarket closed the street to vehicular traffic for the weekend and added winter-themed attractions and entertainment. Main Street businesses partnered to have promotions throughout the entirety of the event, which ran from Feb. 22 to 25.
“It attracted literally thousands of people. The street was packed. We had a lot of new people visiting,” Main Street BIA chair Tom Hempen said. “It’s attracting people from far and wide.”
The new event featured ice sculptures, special menus at local restaurants, draw prizes and more. The town also had a special event permit to allow people to have alcohol out on the street, with the event going on Main between Water Street and Park Avenue.
Olde Village Free House owner and BIA board member Allan Cockburn said he thought it was a huge success, and it brought a lot more daytime business to his restaurant.
“I thought the town did a fantastic job getting it all together,” he said. “It was very successful on my end for the extra traffic being around.”
Ward 5 Newmarket Councillor Bob Kwapis complimented the staff for the effort during the Feb. 26 committee of the whole meeting.
“The families loved it, the businesses certainly loved it, and lots of people showed up, not just from Newmarket but from all over the place,” Kwapis said, adding there was publicity around a couple coming from Buffalo, New York. “I look forward to discussing how we can make it even better next year."
The event did have its hiccups. There was an incident where the town accidentally overextended parking reservations at accessible parking spaces by the Old Town Hall.
Newmarket Mayor John Taylor also recognized challenges with the weather, which caused melting ice sculptures on the first day and cold temperatures the next. But he said it still went very well.
“It was a phenomenal event,” Taylor said. “Just a big thanks to our staff, who I know worked tirelessly and endlessly … I think it’ll be here to stay.”
Main Street Realty broker Peter C. Geibel sponsored an ice sculpture that melted early on, but said he did not fault the town for that and they did work to make it right.
He added that it is great to see the work the municipality puts into events like this one. He suggested there could be more brought in next time to maintain more daytime activity.
"More acts, music, maybe even one large band,” he said. “More of an incentive to bring out the crowd and sort of keep a vibe going the whole day.”
The event represents one of the longest periods Newmarket Main Street has been closed to vehicular traffic.
With a longtime debate about possibly making Main Street pedestrian only, the town has planned to complete a pilot within this term of council to see how well that idea would work. That pilot has not yet come to pass.
Cockburn said more pedestrian traffic days could be a hot topic in the month ahead, and the Ice Lounge was a positive example.
“This was done in February, and it was a huge success,” Cockburn said, adding that doing something like this in the summer can be even better. “There’s some logistics, some retail and hairdressers that I know aren’t real keen on street closures, which will probably be the only hurdle. I think the town probably got a pretty good sample size about what closing the street does to Newmarket.”
Hempen said such a pilot would only come after a community discussion about the concept. He added that having programming is key to bringing people into Main Street.
“When we have an event and it’s programmed with different things happening on the street, it’s a real attraction. But closing down the street for the sake of closing down the street, I think that’s a deeper, longer conversation that needs to take place,” Hempen said. “If we want to bring people then we have to offer something to the people outside of just opening up our businesses and closing down our street.”
