The Arcata Farmers Market opened its 2026 outdoor season on Saturday with 87 registered vendors ringing the plaza, the highest count in the market’s 46-year run. By 10 a.m., the walkways between stalls were shoulder-to-shoulder, and the line at Brio Bread stretched past the statue of William McKinley, or rather, past the empty pedestal where McKinley used to stand.

Market manager Arlene Dowd said the vendor increase reflects both a strong local growing season and a shift in the regional food economy. Fifteen of the new vendors are first-time registrants, including four cannabis-adjacent businesses offering CBD-infused honey, topicals, and tinctures under the state’s cottage food and cannabis manufacturing licenses.

“Five years ago those vendors wouldn’t have applied, and we wouldn’t have had a framework to accept them,” Dowd said. “Now they’re part of the mix, same as the mushroom guy and the goat cheese people.”

The Saturday market runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Arcata Plaza from April through November. It is the largest open-air market on the North Coast and has operated continuously since 1980, making it one of the oldest farmers markets in California. The North Coast Growers Association, which manages the market, reported $2.3 million in total vendor sales last season, up 11 percent from the prior year.

Saturday’s opening featured the usual mix: early-season greens, starts, eggs, baked goods, fermented vegetables, handmade soaps, and more varieties of hot sauce than any reasonable person needs. Local musicians set up near the northwest corner of the plaza, playing a set that leaned heavily on Grateful Dead covers, because this is Arcata and some things do not change.

The newer additions stood out. A vendor called Mycelium Magic, run by two Cal Poly Humboldt graduates, was selling lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms grown in a converted shipping container in McKinleyville. They sold out by noon.

“We’ve been doing the indoor market through the winter, but the outdoor season is where it gets real,” said co-owner Jamie Voss. “People come out here and they want to touch everything, smell everything. That’s how you sell mushrooms.”

Several vendors said they have noticed more foot traffic from tourists in recent years, which they attribute to Arcata’s growing visibility on social media and a steady increase in visitors to Redwood National and State Parks. The Arcata Chamber of Commerce has been actively marketing the Saturday market as a destination experience, and last year added multilingual signage and a printed market map available at the visitor center on G Street.

Not everything was smooth. Parking remains the market’s perennial headache. The plaza-adjacent lots fill by 9:15, and the overflow situation on surrounding residential streets generates complaints every season. The city added a temporary lot on L Street last year, but several vendors said it is too far from the plaza to be useful for customers carrying heavy produce bags.

Dowd said the association is working with the city on a shuttle pilot that would run from the Creamery District parking area to the plaza every 15 minutes on market days. “We have to figure out the transportation piece,” she said. “The market has outgrown the parking, and that’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem.”

The Arcata Farmers Market runs every Saturday through November 21. The North Coast Growers Association also operates markets in Eureka (Tuesdays, starting June 3) and McKinleyville (Thursdays, starting May 15).