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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — When asked about Saturday’s upcoming Clemmons Community Day at the Jerry Long Family YMCA, Denise Heidel, the executive director of the Lewisville-Clemmons Chamber of Commerce, offered a prediction: “It’s going to be bigger and better than ever.”

That’s saying a lot as the annual event has continued to thrive after being shut down in 2020 and again in 2021 because of COVID and the continuing pandemic. However, after returning in 2022 and joining forces with the popular Clemmons Farmers Market to reach more community members, it’s taken off to a new level — with estimates calling for another 5,000-plus crowd if the weather cooperates.

Heidel said that Clemmons Community Day can draw from those coming to the pop-up farmers market and vice versa — creating some overlap to support each other.

“We’ve worked to make this the biggest and best CCD to date,” she said, adding “connecting the businesses and the residents is what it’s all about. We have expanded our activities. We not only have the usual bounce castle, inflatable slide and retro challenge, but we have basketball, soccer and golf activities. Our train is coming back, and we have several great demos planned, including martial arts, yoga and an Irish dance team performing.

“For the first time, we will have 300 free event T-shirts and 300 free tote bags for event sponsors and first guests. We’re excited that this will enable the sponsors to continue to receive recognition after the event.”

Having said all this, Heidel admitted most of the changes in 2025 for the 14th annual gathering have been on the vendor side.

“For the first time, we have a limited number of ‘Bring Your Own Tent’ vendors, and we named our rows with different price points,” she said. “With this, we let our vendors choose their placement based on their budget. While the guests of the event won’t really notice those differences, the vendors have loved these new options.  And we’ve been excited to offer our vendors a flexible and affordable way to be a part of the event.”

The chamber is also rolling out a new volunteer program at Clemmons Community Day — CIA (Chamber in Action). Angelia Cornatzer, marketing and communication director, is spearheading this campaign, and CCD is the first phase with the CIA program launch.

And speaking of vendors, Heidel said that this event is sold out.

“We have 150 vendors and food trucks plus all the vendors for the farmers market,” Heidel said.

That total, according to Lynette Fox, events coordinator for the village of Clemmons, was 52 vendors for the pop-up market at last count, “which is by far a record number. I had 40 on our side last year and it was a tight fit. So I’ll be spending a lot of time this weekend measuring and plotting out the Y parking lot and trying to make this all work.”

“The 52 does not include the food trucks/carts that I need to squish in on our side, as well as the event trailer and the Clemmons Food Pantry. It will all work out though.”

After the first year of the popular partnership, when the Clemmons Farmers Market was set up on an open field across from the parking lot and field where all the vendors are set up, the market moved to that paved parking lot bordering CCD the last two years.

“There are 15 new vendors to our market this year that will be at this special pop-up market on Saturday,” Fox said. “We have two authors, two new plant/cut flower vendors, a knife forger, two photographers, a baker that specializes in Middle Eastern/Mediterranean recipes and even a Russian tea mix maker.

“We have many returning vendors this season. That’s the real reason we have delayed the opening of the market the past two years until the second week of May. This first pop-up market is in the parking lot, but the official opening day on May 10 and also on May 17 will have to be in the field because of the YMCA spring sports going on. But the May 24 market/First Responder Appreciation Day will be back to the parking lot, and there we will stay for the remainder of the season.”

Fox said that it seems the community day portion of the overall effort is “pushed so hard that we all forget about the market side.” However, she recognizes CCD is just one day, and the market runs for five months.

“I’m actually on the Community Day committee with Denise and Kristin (Johnson, the director of Historic Broyhill Office Suites in Clemmons who has played key roles in previous CCD events), and there is so much planning for that side of it,” Fox said. “The village market side, I just tell them to not worry about it. This is my every Saturday, May through September.”

Saturday’s pop-up market will begin at 8:30 a.m. while Clemmons Community Day, which is free to attend, will run from 10 a.m. with the opening ceremonies with the fun, food, festivities and vendor booths set up until 2 p.m.