SCRANTON -- A holiday marketplace highlighting small businesses will return to Scranton this weekend and this is the second year it will be held inside the former Globe Store downtown.
The annual ScrantonMade Holiday Marketplace will be held on Wyoming Avenue Friday night through Sunday afternoon.
This is the second year it'll be held inside the old Globe and the last before the former department store is renovated to house county government.
The ScrantonMade Holiday Marketplace lends itself to Christmas nostalgia. The windows of the former Globe store on Wyoming Avenue are all decorated for the event this weekend.
New this year, Lackawanna County will offer free ice skating out front, closing the 100 block of Wyoming Avenue for the rink.
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While it is free, the Make A Wish Foundation will be asking for donations from skaters.
"The goal this weekend is $4,400. That is the average cost of a wish, our out of pocket expense to send a family of four to Disney World for one week," said Maggie O'Brien of Make A Wish.
About 150 vendors are still working to set up their stands.
Last year's marketplace was so successful organizers say there's a long waiting list of vendors hoping to get a spot for next year.
Lackawanna County officials are expecting about 10,000 people to visit the marketplace this weekend. To help ease the burden of parking downtown, the company that runs the parking garages in the city, ABM Parking, has made Electric City parking garage free for the entire weekend.
Note Fragrances will be one of the weekend's vendors. They're just around the corner from the old Globe, but the owners say the marketplace is big for business.
"An awesome event to have people come down who may not have visited Scranton, first of all. Second of all, it exposed us to people who didn't know us. It's a great event. All the artisans come together and make themselves available to the public, which is awesome," Mark Bonviglio said.
This will be the last year the Globe will host the ScrantonMade Holiday Market. Lackawanna County breaks ground next week on its renovation of the former department store.
Businesses are already looking ahead to next year, however.
"I hesitate with the word trend. I don't want to call it a trend because trends go away. So, hopefully, this is a movement, not a trend," Bonviglio said.
While the county will occupy the building next year, the commissioners told us they still want to be involved with the marketplace next year, wherever it may be.