CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News) – After running Katy Market Days for 30 years, Betsy Proctor and fellow Old Town Katy business owners are launching new initiatives to draw shoppers following the city's decision to end the popular street festivals she hosted ten times per year on Saturday's March through December.
The semi-monthly event attracted 2,000 to 4,000 visitors to Old Town Katy, and far more during the December Christmas focused festival. City employees will operate similar events later this year, but local businesses need to keep the lights on and aren't waiting to see the results of the city's efforts.
"We will work together to keep the downtown area active," Proctor said.
Proctor and other business owners are planning several new events, including Ladies Nights and Gents Nights. Their first venture, "Meatball Madness," will feature participating shops serving meatballs, including vegetarian options, with customers rating their favorites and entering to win prizes. It will be held Thursday, Jan. 30 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
"In the past, when we had ladies' night, I'd always serve meatballs and everyone loved them," Proctor said.
The idea for Meatball Madness came from Proctor's daughter-in-law, owner of the Katy Rock Shop. Visitors will receive a map to be stamped at each participating store location and customers will vote for the store with the best meatballs.
Betsy Proctor
Customers who shop in Old Town Katy during Meatball Madness will be asked to fill out this form to win prizes.
Proctor, who owns The Limited Edition Art & Antiques at 5717 with her husband, said businesses are considering additional events like monthly sidewalk sales and a fall cookie trail.
Numerous businesses are working together with Proctor and her daughter-in-law in a unified effort to replace the traffic once brought by Katy Market Days. They include Dovetail Antiques, C&S Emporium, Vintage Backroads, KT Antiques, Wildflower Threads, Southern Dough Baking Company, Box Drop Mattress, and Sunshine Station.
"We are hoping to come up with many creative ideas to bring folks into town as we will not have the extra revenue KMD brought us," Proctor said.
While these new events are not expected to match Katy Market Days' attendance, they demonstrate local business owners' commitment to maintaining a vibrant downtown community. The merchants are also forming an Old Town Katy business group to coordinate future events.
"We always had group meetings about Katy Market Days but stopped during COVID, and I didn't bring them back until recently," Proctor said.
In an effort to keep our readers informed of when these events are taking place and to help local businesses through this time of uncertainty, Covering Katy will be posting the dates and times of these events on our home page calendar found at CoveringKaty.com.
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