There's been a little bit of movement over at the East Hall site over the past few days -- on Thursday and Friday, the workers finished pouring the cement foundation, while the frame around the foundation was removed yesterday and today in preparation for the building's arrival this week! According to Gary Peterson, the building is scheduled to show up this Thursday, and will be fully erected by a week from today. In addition, most all the equipment for the merchants has been delivered and is awaiting installation in the East Hall, meaning that plans are afoot for a “soft opening” sometime around the first day of August. Not all the merchants will be ready to open in the new building by that date, though -- it looks like August 14th is the current target date to be back at 100% operations, including the Market Lunch (bluebucks and bricks!).
On another exciting note, the folks at the Capitol Hill Community Foundation have worked hard to start up the Eastern Market Music Series, a new weekly event that'll bring two groups of musicians to the space in front of Port City Java every Sunday through the end of September. This coming Sunday, July 22nd, Rick Franklin and Mike Baytop will start things off with their Piedmont-style blues and ragtime music at 10:30 AM, and will be followed by the vintage blues of The Resonators at 1:00 PM. The full schedule is available at the CHCF website, and we're going to add all the performers onto the calendar!