On Saturday, the Carrboro Farmers' Market hosted their annual Vendor Costume Contest, marking the end of their main season hours and celebrating Halloween.
Shoppers could buy one dollar tickets to cast a vote for their favorite costumes. These ticket sales also served as a fundraiser for the market's Double Bucks program, a way that customers using food assistance programs can buy twice as much from market vendors for the same price.
The farmers’ market was abuzz with people of all ages. Families, UNC students and community members alike explored the market, which hosted a large variety of vendors, as well as live music from a local band, the Docksiders.
The Carrboro Farmers’ Market is called a producers only market, meaning that all of the featured vendors are the original producers of the products they are selling. All of the vendors are also located within 50 miles of Carrboro, keeping the flow of goods local.
Included in the event was the UNC Culinary Medicine Club, which collaborated with the Carrboro Farmers’ Market this year. They provided fall-themed samples for shoppers, such as pumpkin oat power balls and pumpkin seed trail mix.
Maggie Funkhouser, the manager of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, said that she was looking forward to seeing all of the different costumes.
“The vendors get pretty into it,” Funkhouser said. “They get pretty creative and fun and I feel like everyone is in a celebratory mood.”
At the market, many vendors were dressed up. Some even participated in elaborate group costumes with their families and coworkers, showing off their Halloween spirit.
One family dressed up as characters from "My Neighbor Totoro," while a group of four market vendors stuck to a vegetal theme with their costumes — each of the four sellers wore a colorful shirt, matching boa and a name tag indicating which vegetable they were dressed as. Other costumes included a venus flytrap, chicken and worms.
