The popular Mercado on Fifth, at 12th Street and 5th Avenue, Moline, will open its seventh season Friday.
The free Friday markets run 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and for the first time patrons will be invited inside the newly renovated Mercado building at 423 12th St., and a section of 12th Street will be blocked off for the weekly events (through September).
“Mercado just screams summer, so this time of year everyone’s just itching to get back on 5th Avenue,” board president and interim director Maria Ontiveros said Tuesday. “Opening Day is always exciting, because you can see which new businesses have popped up over the winter. This year, we have 13 new businesses participating, so we’re really excited about that.”
The live music this Friday is a famous band from Mexico (Sonora Santanera), which is the first time they’ve performed at Mercado. John Deere is sponsoring the night and booths will include from German American Heritage Center and the Putnam Museum & Science Center.
In addition to tasty food and drink options, vendors will sell ceramic pottery, traditional blouses, hats, boots, and other clothing. Part of 12th Street will be blocked off for the first time for Mercado, with space for more vendors (from the north side of the building to the intersection with Fifth). There are 50 vendors altogether.
There will be one food vendor inside and the stage area will house a free QC Toddler Zone, with soft play equipment. This is the first summer season that the building is open, with the bar serving a limited menu of cocktails (including margaritas and sangria), which won’t be available outside.
Market coordinator Montse Lopez has expanded her role, after working with vendors last year, Ontiveros said. Her additional responsibilities include planning live music and sponsorships for the event. Opening day last year attracted about 4,500 people; an average Friday brings in 2,500 to 4,000, run with the help of 20 volunteers.
Lopez was previously an administrative assistant to former executive director Anamaria Rocha, who left her job last November to work for IMAN Consulting. Ontiveros isn’t filling the position until following this summer, she said.
There are several other Mercado staff, who work about 30 hours a week each.
There is a bar manager/event coordinator, who helps book the building for private events. Mercado did a soft opening this spring, including hosting a Spring Forward Learning Center event March 25, and an Illinois Arts Council community forum on March 10.
Mercado rents the building for private parties – several are scheduled this summer, without even advertising it, Ontiveros said. “We’re very excited to offer this amenity to the community,” she said. If interested in renting the building, visit the Mercado website HERE.
“I’m a big fan of total utilization of space,” Chris Ontiveros (Maria’s father) said Tuesday.
“Here was this underutilized asset in the middle of our festival grounds and the timing worked perfectly – they wanted to move out while we wanted to move in,” he said of the 6,300-square-foot building, formerly The Car Shop. “The stars kind of aligned.”
He plans to expand Mercado to expand Mercado’s diversity beyond the Hispanic community.
“One of our long-term goals is to have the street permanently closed,” Chris said of this section of 5th Avenue, working with the city and state. “We should be able to do programming 365 days of the year. We see it as a mini-Summerfest grounds,” he said of the Milwaukee festival grounds that host many ethnic events during the year.
“The Quad Cities is a big melting pot,” he said, noting he’s half Mexican and also German/Irish. “We want to provide programming year-round.”
The colorful murals on three sides of the building were completed last November, led by Czr Prz (Caesar Perez), a contemporary artist working in sculpture and large-scale aerosol murals. Born and raised in Chicago, Prz’s 20-year creative career has spanned North America and Europe. Prz enjoys telling stories with his artwork in the folkloric tradition instilled by his Latino-Caribbean upbringing.
The butterfly section of the Mercado building includes a plaque and eternal flame in tribute to QC community leader Bob Ontiveros (Maria’s grandfather), a Moline native who grew up in the Floreciente neighborhood (which houses Mercado) and died Feb. 8, 2022 at age 83.
There’s even a new theme song for the Friday market, “Bienvenidos Al Mercado” (meaning “Welcome to Mercado”), the idea of the nonprofit’s new communications coordinator. He reached to his friend, the local artist and producer Juan Vasquez, and “he put together an incredible with a few more local artists,” Maria Ontiveros said. “That will be premiering on opening day. It’s a great anthem.”
During Mercado, it will play during announcements, as well as in local media commercials.
Most people don’t know how strong an economic development group that Mercado is, helping minority-owned businesses in the area, Ontiveros said.
“We’re not just a market – we have a lot of technical assistance behind the scenes to help our vendors get to where they are, and to grow,” she said. “Some of our vendors have started brick-and-mortar restaurants. Since our inception in 2016, we’ve helped to start over 60 new businesses; we’re very proud of that.”
Two staff members help businesses to apply for local, state and federal grants, and with technical assistance (for permits, etc.). Mercado on Fifth is dedicated to promoting small and minority-owned businesses and Hispanic cultural pride in the Quad Cities.
For updates on Mercado, visit its Facebook page HERE.
