Northland Brewing Co.'s Night Bazaar series starts June 3

INDIAN RIVER — Northland Brewing Co. in Indian River is starting the summer with a series of evening events full of vendors, artists, musicians and more.

Northland Brewing's Night Bazaar program starts on June 3 and will continue every other Saturday throughout the summer. The bazaars will include food trucks, live music, arts and craft vendors and educational programs.

More: Northland Brewing Company now open in Indian River

Northland Brewing is a relatively new business, having opened three years ago at 3798 S. Straits Highway in Indian River. The owner, Matt Whitener, previously had a career in real estate but wanted to create a multi-use development that could host community events.

Whitener already had a passion for home-brewing, and saw an opportunity to create a brewery that could also be used for local events.

"This is a property that's been in my family for a number of years," Whitener said. "My history is in real estate, so I've kind of had my eye on creating a development here, it seemed to go hand in hand with my home-brewing."

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Soon after opening, the brewery teamed up with another local business, Market Mercado, to create some kind of community event for local residents.

Together with Market Mercado, which already partnered with many local artists, the brewery created the Night Bazaar. With local artists, food trucks and local musicians, the bazaar became a regular community event.

"The Market Mercado is another popular business in the area and they employ a lot of local artists," said Whitener. "The impetus for the Night Bazaar was really to bring these two businesses together, and since then it's grown into so much more."

Every time the bazaar is put on, it expands even more. It now includes educational programs where people can learn about salsa dancing, local herbs and more. After two years of hosting the bazaar, more and more local businesses have joined in to set up shop, offer classes and sell their wares.

"It's really an organic thing that's grown naturally as a sort of collaboration between local businesses," said Whitener. "It's really this organically grown community event."

Starting June 3, the bazaar opens at 5 p.m. every other Saturday with education classes, starting with yoga and crafting classes. The vendors tend to open at 6 p.m., and live music plays until the bazaar closes at 10 p.m.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Northland Brewing Co.'s Night Bazaar series starts June 3 in Indian River