Pop-Ups on the Bay come back for third year in a row

Applications for businesses to be part of this year’s Pop-Ups on the Bay will open the week of Feb. 1.

By Laural Samson

BELLEVILLE – Pop-ups on the Bay will be back this year, with applications for businesses to snag a spot opening the week of Feb. 1.

Pop-ups on the Bay started back in 2019. They are an opportunity for both new and established businesses to set up shop in a spot next to the Belleville waterfront.

Elisha Purchase, development and tourism coordinator for the city of Belleville, said Pop-ups on the Bay is a great opportunity for businesses in the area to get support and advertising from the city.

“The marketing and the exposure they get online from those partners, that’s the city of Belleville and Bay of Quinte Tourism, is significant. That’s exposure that you would not get if you were to open a business on your own without being part of a program like this.”

The event takes place in the summer, and in the middle of tourism season, and it gives the chance for smaller businesses to get their name out there and larger businesses to have more locations.

The event has previously been held at Riverside Park due to flooding in 2019, but moved to its permanent summer location at West Zwick’s Island Park last summer.

“West Zwick draws a significant amount of people, both locals and visitors to Belleville, especially given that it is located right on the gateway to Prince Edward County,” Purchase said. “We can certainly draw from both local and tourists traffic that we see over the Bay Bridge, and it’s significant- it’s one of our biggest arteries into the city.”

In the past, Pop-Ups on the Bay has had at least nine vendors participate, including popular businesses like JERKebago, the Golden Scoop, and Venture Outfitter’s.

And while they did have to make adjustments for last year’s event so it could still remain open during COVID-19, Purchase says that visitors can expect to see the same changes this year.

“Once we were working with the health unit, we had to really spread the units apart,” Purchase said about how the layout of the vendors is COVID-19 friendly. “Instead of creating more density in the area, we really had to spread everything out so that way there was no close contact.”

And with applications for Pop-Ups on the Bay opening this week, Purchase says that they have businesses jumping at the chance to rent an affordable spot in the event.

“We think this is going to be a really great year; we are seeing a lot of demand,” Purchase said, adding that the amount of vendors that want to be part of Pop-Ups on the Bay again this year shows the success of the event.

“We will have a difficult time selecting vendors but we will have some really great products and services to offer there over the summer.”