SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — One of San Diego’s most popular and longest-running farmers markets is set to move to a new location for the new year as the city prepares to break ground on a highly-anticipated promenade in uptown.
Beginning on Jan. 26, the Hillcrest Farmers Market will be setting up along University Avenue, just around the corner from its usual spot on Normal Street. This new site — between Herbert Street and Park Boulevard — will be the market’s home for the rest of 2025.
The Hillcrest Business Association, who organizes the weekly event, said the move will help make way for the new Normal Heights Promenade, a $26.8 million project to create an urban park in the center of the neighborhood.
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City officials have billed the project as a “transformative” initiative to create a much-needed gathering space in the park-less Hillcrest, featuring bike lanes, greenery and benches, a playground and a small café inside a restored Trolley car.
The city plans to do so by narrowing the number of lanes along Normal Street between University Avenue and Lincoln Street, and building out the nearby Pride Plaza.
Once complete, the promenade will become the permanent home for the farmer’s market, as well as the annual San Diego Pride Festival.
“This move to a temporary location is an important step toward an incredible future,” Mark Larson, the manager of the market, said in a statement on the move later this month. “The Normal Street Promenade will provide a permanent, thoughtfully designed home for the market, creating an even more vibrant and welcoming experience for everyone.”
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Organizers say the new home at the future Normal Street Promenade will also remove the need for any road closures to host the farmer’s market — a silver lining for frequent drivers through the area on weekends.
“The Normal Street Promenade will give us a permanent home in the heart of Hillcrest, and I can already imagine the vibrant atmosphere it will create,” Charles Edmund, a vendor at the farmers market, said in a statement. “This is more than a move — it’s an evolution, and I’m thrilled to be part of it!”
The Hillcrest Farmers Market operates every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine.
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