Killarney’s Pub hosted its first Christmas Market on Dec. 9 and 10, in an act to give locals a chance to buy that last minute gift, as well as bring more attention to the pub in general.
Killarney’s and Deja Brew owner as well as event organizer Dominic Hickey said the market went better than he could of ever expected it to go.
“I think it (the market) went really well. We had 21 vendors in the pub … it was cozy, but not to jam-packed. I was standing by the front door, giving out some 10 per cent coupons for Killarney’s, and from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday, we had over 300 people come through the door during that time period,” Hickey said.
“It was amazing, it did exactly what we wanted it to do. Most of the visitors had no idea about Killarney’s, and the 20 per cent that knew about it, thought we were closed because of the golf club next door. The restaurant was really busy with food sales, and a lot of the vendors said they sold quite a bit of their product, as well as introduced new people to what they were doing.”
“Overall, I think it went exceptionally well, especially considering there was a market over at Spray Lake (Sawmills Family Sports Centre) and one in Bearspaw as well. It was nice to see that people still showed up to Killarney’s, even with increased competition.”
Hickey also said he’s received numerous responses from the vendors as well, all of which have been positive.
Hickey also said there are plans in the future for a Valentine’s Day market, as well as one in the summer time.
“We already have a Valentines Day market in the works, with 14 of the possible 21 spots already taken up,” Hickey said, adding the plans for the summer would include the parking lot.
“We have a lot of space there, which would just open up the ability to add more people and extend way past our number of 21, which is all we can fit into the bar. It’s an exciting time for Killarney’s and an exciting time for Cochrane as a whole and I’m really looking forward to what’s to come.”
