A Wichita Tradition Since 1991

Old Town Farm & Art Market traces its roots back to 1991, when the Old Town Farm & Art Market began operating in Wichita’s historic Old Town district. From the beginning, the Market served as a gathering place where local farmers, food producers, artisans, and neighbors could come together on Saturday mornings to buy and sell locally produced goods. 

For more than three decades, the Market has remained part of Wichita’s community life, connecting customers with local growers, makers, and small businesses in the heart of the city. 

The Vision for Farm & Art Market Plaza 

Before redevelopment began in the late 1980s, what is now known as Old Town Wichita was primarily a historic warehouse and wholesale district. Most of the large brick buildings in the area were constructed between the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the neighborhood served as a hub for agricultural distribution connected to Wichita’s rail lines and nearby Union Station. Produce wholesalers, grain suppliers, grocery distributors, and farm supply companies operated from these warehouses, moving goods throughout the region. The district was busy during the day with freight and commerce, but largely quiet in the evenings. 

As transportation shifted away from rail and toward trucking and highways in the mid-20th century, many of these businesses relocated to modern industrial areas outside the city center. By the 1970s and early 1980s, much of the district had become underused or vacant, leaving behind rows of aging but structurally sound brick warehouses.  

In 1987, architect and developer David Burk of Marketplace Properties began redeveloping the area, choosing to preserve and repurpose the historic buildings rather than demolish them. As part of this effort, Farm & Art Market Plaza was created as a public gathering space intended to support local farmers, food producers, and artisans. The concept of a farmers market helped bring new life to the district and reconnected it with its agricultural roots. 

1991 – Wichita Farm & Art Market

In 1991, Wichita Farm & Art Market began operating as a regular Saturday market in the newly revitalized Old Town district. From the beginning, the Market brought together local farmers, food producers, artists, and makers, offering fresh produce, prepared foods, art, and handcrafted goods. Live music and street performers added to the experience, helping establish the lively Saturday-morning tradition that continues today. 

The Market's location was especially fitting. For generations, the surrounding warehouse district had been a center of agricultural commerce, home to produce companies, wholesale grocers, farm suppliers, and businesses that moved goods throughout the region by rail. As Old Town transitioned from an aging industrial district into a destination for shopping, dining, arts, and entertainment, Wichita Farm & Art Market brought farmers and small businesses back to a part of the city historically rooted in agriculture and trade. 

The Market operated as Wichita Farm & Art Market for more than a decade. Its original rooster logo was prominently painted on the building at 835 E. 1st Street, overlooking Farm & Art Market Plaza and the Saturday market below. 

2017 – A New Chapter

By 2016, the Market had been operating in Old Town for 25 years. That year, FarmShop, LLC, a Wichita company founded by Luke and Amy Snow, was presented with the opportunity to acquire Old Town Farmers' Market.

FarmShop had been established in 2015 with a focus on strengthening the local food system and supporting the farmers, ranchers, food producers, and gardeners behind it. Its original motto, “Cultivate Change,” reflected a commitment to locally and responsibly produced foods, organic growing practices, and creating better opportunities for independent producers.

Before taking on the Market, FarmShop studied farmers markets across the country, examining how they were managed, funded, and operated. Most were run by nonprofit organizations, municipalities, or vendor groups, while privately owned markets represented a smaller but growing model.

The opportunity was clear: develop a professionally managed, systems-based, privately owned market that could be financially sustainable while preserving the low financial barrier to entry that has traditionally made farmers markets important places for small businesses.

In 2017, FarmShop assumed operational control of Old Town Farmers' Market and began implementing new systems, Standards, technology, marketing, policies, and operational practices.

The response was immediate. Vendor participation increased 150% in the first season.

Raising the Standard

Growth alone was never the goal.

Central to the new operating model was the development of Market Standards designed not only to guide vendors, but to define and shape the types of businesses and products represented at the Market.

The Standards established expectations for sourcing, craftsmanship, product integrity, ingredients, and business practices while reinforcing the Market's commitment to local agriculture and responsibly produced foods. They also created a framework for encouraging better food-production practices and reducing reliance on artificial ingredients and conventional systems heavily dependent on synthetic inputs.

Those Standards have continued to evolve alongside the Market and remain one of the defining characteristics of Old Town Farm & Art Market today.

The philosophy behind them remains closely connected to FarmShop's original idea: Cultivate Change.

Extending the Market Season

As the Market grew, another challenge became apparent: farmers, food producers, artists, and makers needed opportunities to reach customers beyond the traditional outdoor market season.

In 2017, FarmShop extended the Market season indoors for the first time, partnering with Distillery 244 Old Town to continue Saturday markets during the winter months.

When the new WAVE entertainment venue opened in downtown Wichita in 2018, the growing Market moved its winter operations there. The larger venue provided additional space for vendors and customers, and WAVE became home to the winter Market during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

The extended season became an important part of the Market's evolution, providing small businesses with additional selling opportunities while giving Wichita customers a way to continue shopping locally beyond the traditional outdoor season.

That indoor chapter would come to an unexpected end in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced venues throughout Wichita, including WAVE, to close.

2019 – Farm & Art Returns

The Market's name has changed along with the district and the organizations that have operated it.

The original Market opened in 1991 as Wichita Farm & Art Market. In 2004, under new management, it became Old Town Farmers' Market, adopting the name of the Old Town district that had grown into one of Wichita's most recognizable destinations.

In 2019, FarmShop brought those two pieces of the Market's history together and introduced the name it carries today: Old Town Farm & Art Market.

The change restored Farm & Art to the Market's identity while retaining the Old Town name it had carried for 15 years. It also more accurately represented what the Market had historically been: a gathering place for local agriculture and food alongside artists, makers, and artisan businesses.

2020 – A Market When Wichita Needed One

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly ended the Market's indoor season at WAVE as businesses and venues throughout Wichita closed.

When the outdoor season arrived, however, Old Town Farm & Art Market returned to Farm & Art Market Plaza.

The open-air environment provided Wichita residents with access to local farms and food producers while giving independent businesses an important opportunity to continue operating during an extraordinarily difficult period. Farm & Art Market Plaza became a place where the community could safely reconnect, and the Market ultimately experienced one of its strongest seasons.

With indoor operations no longer an option that winter, the decision was made to extend the outdoor season through the third Saturday in December.

That decision created what is now the Market's Holiday Market Season, extending the annual season from April through December. What began as a response to the circumstances of 2020 became a successful tradition that continues today.

Building a Professional Market

As participation increased, so did the complexity of operating the Market.

Vendor recruitment and selection, applications, Standards and compliance, mapping, logistics, communications, marketing, street closures, setup and breakdown procedures, staffing, entertainment, customer experience, and on-site management all became part of an increasingly sophisticated operating system.

The Market became the proving ground for systems that FarmShop would eventually apply beyond Saturday mornings in Old Town. Today, FarmShop, LLC operates as a professional market and event operations company, providing vendor management, logistics, programming, and on-site operations for markets, festivals, and special events.

That work grew directly from the experience of building and operating Old Town Farm & Art Market and continues to inform how the Market itself evolves each season.

The Market Today

Today, Old Town Farm & Art Market is the largest privately owned farmers market in Kansas, welcoming thousands of visitors each week during its 37-week season from April through December.

Approximately 150 vendor businesses make up the Market community, with more than 100 participating on a typical Saturday during the height of the season. What once occupied a relatively small portion of Farm & Art Market Plaza has expanded throughout the surrounding streets to accommodate local farms, ranches, food producers, artists, makers, and artisan businesses.

The Market's growth has also strengthened its relationships throughout Wichita. The City of Wichita, Old Town Association, Downtown Wichita, Visit Wichita, and other community organizations have become important supporters as Old Town Farm & Art Market has grown into one of Wichita's signature destinations: a weekly tradition for local residents and a must-see stop for visitors.

More than three decades after the first vendors gathered at Farm & Art Market Plaza, much has changed. The Market is larger, the season is longer, and the systems behind it are considerably more sophisticated.

But the fundamental purpose remains remarkably similar to the vision that began in 1991: provide an accessible marketplace where independent local businesses can connect directly with customers while bringing Wichita together around local food, art, artisan goods, and live music.

By the early 2000s, Old Town itself had become one of Wichita's most recognizable districts and a regional destination. In 2004, Pat Randleas, her husband, and partners formed Wichita Farmers Market Vendors Association, LLC and assumed operation of the Market. Under their leadership, the Market became Old Town Farmers Market, adopting the name of the district that had grown around it. 

For the next several years, Old Town Farmers Market remained a familiar part of Saturday mornings in downtown Wichita. The Market continued connecting local vendors with the community as Old Town grew and changed around it. 

By 2016, the Market had been operating for 25 years. That year, another Wichita small business with roots in local food and agriculture was presented with an opportunity that would begin the Market's next chapter.