Two Years Of Lynchburg Market: La Vida Community Market For Local Vendors And Shoppers

Lynchburg Market hosted its two-year anniversary preview Sunday, Jan. 30 at La Vida Coffee + Market with around 18 vendors selling their unique items.

Lynchburg Market owners Macy Morehart and Lee Patton celebrated the opportunities and the experiences they’ve had partnering with La Vida.

“We’ve had the Lynchburg Market at La Vida for all of last semester as we’ve previously had at Atelier (Studio & Gathering Space),” Morehart said. “But we switched over to La Vida just because it was such an upcoming brand and coffee shop in the community that we wanted to just kind of partner up with them.”

Morehart said this year’s celebration was different as the market hosted more vendors than they previously did, provided fun snacks like cupcakes and cookies and held giveaways. 

“It’s such a sweet moment for us just because it’s such an exciting time, and we get to look back on the previous two years of our Lynchburg Markets and just kind of remember all of the businesses and vendors that we’ve had,” Morehart said.

Morehart said the purpose of both Lynchburg Market and La Vida is to celebrate the people that come and the businesses they host, which she said are the reasons the Lynchburg Market exists.

“They are special to us, and they mean so much to us because, without them, we wouldn’t have the Lynchburg Market,” Morehart said.

Lee Patton compared this anniversary to when he and Morehart first started as owners and how they grew from the experience. 

“I think we had a lot of growing to do because it was an industry that wasn’t in Lynchburg yet,” Patton said. “We’ve learned a lot about the different vendors and creatives in Lynchburg, and we built up just so many relationships with locals and students, and now we kind of get to see the effects of the market with other people kind of doing their own markets.”

When it came to first finding a space, Morehart and Patton looked at coffee shops in the area and then heard about La Vida needing events for the space. Morehart knew Andrew Padilla before La Vida and loved hearing his passion to start the coffee shop to bring the community together, which inspired the Lynchburg Market. 

“When they started out, we wanted to help them out because we had already been established for a year,” Morehart said. “So, it was really a move for both of us because it’s like we want to bring people to this coffee shop so people can have the coffee and live in that space for the upcoming years, and they wanted to do the exact same thing for us.”

La Vida and Lynchburg Market had a variety of items sold by local businesses and vendors this year. Morehart and Patton described how in the beginning, they had more apparel, jewelry and knick-knacks, but it has taken on a more relaxed vibe.  

“I personally feel it’s more of a homey feel now because you have the thrift stores. We have multiple thrift stores that come in,” Morehart said.

Morehart and Patton’s goals are to continue to inspire those who engage with La Vida and Lynchburg Market. They want to keep encouraging those in the community as they have been doing from the beginning.

“I think our goals are just to make the same impact that we had in the beginning,” Patton said. “We feel we fulfilled it in a lot of ways and done a lot of good in the community, and the community has done that for us as well.”

According to Morehart, they want La Vida and Lynchburg Market to also help people build up God’s kingdom.

“In the end, the Lord is going to use their business and their ‘yes’ to build a bigger space for him to use in his kingdom,” Morehart said.

Woolwine  is a feature reporter.