DES MOINES, Iowa – The Downtown Farmers’ Market in Des Moines is celebrating its 50th year of supporting small business owners.

“It’s definitely helped us grow our little, small business,” Aundrea Eilers told WHO 13’s Katie Kaplan.

Eilers is a specialty flower farmer based in Madison County. She and her husband own Wren & Willow Farm. For her, the business is rooted in love.

“I grew up gardening with my mom,” she said. “So, we share a love of flowers.”

Eilers planted the first seeds roughly four years ago, and said she has seen the business blossom over many Saturday mornings in downtown Des Moines.

“The farmer’s market is a great opportunity for us to get our name out there and see people, see our products, obviously sell our flowers,” she said.

Eilers spent most of Friday putting together dozens of bouquets from blooming tulip bulbs she planted last Fall. She said she expects to sell roughly 130 bouquets, which include unique varieties of tulips, during the upcoming market.

It has been months of work for the market organizers, too.

“We close down the market on the last day, and then we kind of jumped right back into it,” said Elizabeth Weyers.

Weyers is the Downtown Farmers Market Manager at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which organizes the event. She said the past six months have been full of logistical planning, filing for permits and vetting vendor applications.

“There’s a lot of production stuff that people don’t necessarily see,” she said.

That also includes working on some of the “less glamorous” details, like ensuring porta-potties are on site, that waste management is scheduled to pick up trash, and that signage and barricades are in place. Sometimes, that happens in the middle of the night. Weyers said she and her team would be on site at 4 a.m. Saturday ahead of the first market of 2025.

By 7 a.m., hundreds of vendors and shoppers were expected to fill Court Avenue when the annual first market bell ringing happens. The first 200 people to arrive at the event were expected to get a commemorative cowbell.

Weyers said they were excited for the 2025 experience, which will be bigger and better than ever.

“We’re gonna be opening Fifth Street as part of our market footprint this year,” she said. “And then we’ve added 48 new vendors.”

The season will also include several surprise pop-up events that will be announced on social media over the next few months.

When the Downtown Farmers’ Market was first established in July of 1976, there were little more than a dozen vendors who collected in the parking garage at 8th and Mulberry. At the time, the Des Moines Register reported that more than 2,500 people attended. In 2025, the event will offer roughly 330 vendors and will draw an estimated 28,000 people every weekend, who will support Iowa’s small business owners.

“It’s just such a fun, happy place to be,” said Eilers.

The Downtown Farmer’s Market will run every Saturday, May 3 through Oct. 25, in the Historic Court District. Hours of operation are 7 a.m. to Noon, until October when it will open an hour later at 8 a.m. In the event of inclement weather, the public should keep an eye on the market’s dedicated Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram pages for updates.