Hanford Insider Previews the 2026 Thursday Night Marketplace

Marketplace Preview And Weekly Rundown

On this episode of the Hanford Insider, we get a preview of the 26th season of the Main Street Hanford Thursday Night Marketplace with Jim Castleman. Rob will give you a look at some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with your sports report. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, April 27th.

City Council Notes And New Eats

Community Calendar For Late April

Meet The Marketplace Host Jim

Welcome to the Hanford Insider, where community meets conversation. We spotlight the people, events, and ideas moving Hanford forward, sharing the positive stories that define our community one story at a time. I'm your host, Rob Bentley. So let's get started. In community news this week, the Hanford City Council met last Tuesday, and we should be hearing from one of the council members soon with a wrap-up. Once it's posted, I'll repost it here on The Insider. You can always go to the Hanford City website at Hanford.city and watch the video of the meetings too. The Hanford Sentinel confirmed in an article this week that several restaurants will be opening in Hanford soon. Oh no Wine Barbecue is slated to open next to Denny's. Robertito's Mexican restaurant will be opening near 11th in Cadillac Lane. And we've all heard about the Olive Garden across Mall Drive from Chili's. But they'll also be building a Chick-fil-A there as well. The site plan calls for another tenant, but that's not been announced yet. The developer says that if all things go right, those restaurants should be open in about a year. Now, what about that steakhouse, Hanford? What do you think? Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. On Tuesday, April 28th, Hanford City Council member Lou Martinez and Police Chief Stephanie Huddleston will be holding the monthly Council Connect event at the Longfield Center beginning at 5.30 p.m. The Hanford Cycle Swap will be this Friday, May 1st and Saturday, May 2nd at the King's Fairgrounds. The Little Brick Theater is holding an open mic night on Friday, May 1st. For more information, visit HanfordMTC.com. Saturday, May 2nd is Comic Book Day at DJ's Collectibles and at the Kings County Library Temporary Hanford Branch. On Saturday, there will also be two Mother's Day vendor fairs, one at the Hanford Mall and one at the Hanford Fraternal Hall. In the evening on Saturday, downtown Hanford will be buzzing. The annual Cinco de Mayo Festival will be on 7th Street between Dowdy and Erwin, and the high school prom is at the Hanford Civic Auditorium. On Sunday, May 3rd, the King's Arts Center will be holding their Taco Fiesta. Looking a little farther into May, the Carnegie Museum of Kings County is holding a special author event with Sarah Vladik, author of The Dangerous Shore on Wednesday, May 6th. For more information into the RSVP, visit Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org. Comedian Tim Hawkins will be performing at the Hanford Fox Theater on Friday, May 8th. Visit FoxHamford.com for information and tickets. The Carnegie Car Show is coming up on June 6th. Early bird registration for entries is this Friday, May 1st. The food vendor spaces are all taken, but there's plenty of vendor space still available at the festival in the Civic Auditorium Park. Visit Carnegie Car Show.com for information and registration. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available. It's the end of April, beginning of May, and we know what time it is. It's time for the Thursday Night Marketplace, and I'm so happy to have back on the show Jim Castleman, who is the host of Thursday Night Marketplace. Jim, have you been the host for all 26 years? I have, Ru.

It's hard to believe sometimes when I stop and think about it. But the year 2000, uh Craig Sharden became the original director and asked me to get involved, and that's when it all started for me in 2000. He convinced me to do that, and I've been doing it ever since. That is great. I went from volunteer to board member to president of the board to I'm and I'm currently on the board as well now, but uh as as one of the executive committee.

We've got a full schedule of events planned for all the way from May 7th until October 29th. And uh we'll get into some of the details of the Thursday night marketplace and kind of what to look for this year, but I thought maybe just a little bit of what the marketplace means to you and what it means to the community, because I know it's really big on your plate.

Why The Marketplace Builds Community

Well, it it it personifies community. It's it's so important to to me. I think Craig Sharrtan did it best when he first uh came to work here. He convinced me that why should we have to go out of town to celebrate things and have community and have a good time and spend our money when we could do it right here in in Hanford in these in this beautiful downtown. And so once he convinced me of that, I was like ready to to flee. And uh once I got involved, it just it it the light came on. I said, you know what, he's right. We need to do it right here where we live. We don't need to have to run to San Luis Obispo or or where bass wherever you might run, Long Beach or wherever, San Francisco, wherever, you could do you could have a good time right here, plus it would benefit the whole community and be something that the whole community could be proud of. And I think that's that kind of says it for me, is it's it's so important to our town. I I think now when I look at it, if if there wasn't Main Street Hanford and all the events that we do downtown, it would there would be just a lot of dark hole in uh in what happens in this community. I mean, there are events, but there's not as many as 30 that you take the 34 events that Main Street Hanford does away from Hanford, there's gonna be a lot of downtime. And so I I just think it's important. I think as we grow, I think we're we we've been important for a lot of brick and mortar that's happened in downtown Hanford that businesses have been attracted here because they can see the energy that's downtown. So that's that's it in a nutshell for me.

And it's not just for us here in Hanford, and I've I want to share this story with you, and I think we've probably talked about this before, but when I um and over the past two years or so, I've had a booth at the marketplace and promoting the podcast and getting the word out there. But one of the things I found out is I would go up to people and say, Hey, are you from Hanford? I'd like to talk to you about this podcast. And we have people that come from all over the valley to this thing. It's not just Hanford people.

Yeah, it's become it's become a a magnet for the whole Central Valley from Madeira to Porterville to Three Rivers to Kalinga. We've got it mapped on a on a on a program that we have, and we can see where all these people are coming from. But yeah, I the the all the bands that come out of town, and I've been really involved with the bands over the years, but all the bands that come out of town, they all say we wish we could do something like this in our town. And they bring people from Reedley and Selma and Tallery and Vicellia and Fresno, they're all here in Hanford mixing with our community, so which which really put shines a light on our community, the health of our community, and hopefully as we grow, it that will that will grow with it. You know, I mean things are happening right now that are huge in in and around Hanford, California, and as we grow. I can go in, you know, you just saw some of the articles and some of the new restaurants are gonna show up, and some things like that start happening, it just can it it like a it's like it gains momentum and it just becomes like a steamroller, you know. That's the hopes. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I I I meet people at every every market, I meet people from out of town somewhere. We came from Telaria, we came from these are you know, these are people who are visiting us from Modesto, we brought them from we know we're here from Fowler and we're here from Selma, and it's like all out there in the park. It's pretty amazing.

Theme Nights Plus Bands And Flyover

So this all begins on Thursday, May 7th at 5.30, and the marketplace runs from May 7th all the way to October 29th from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Yeah, and we've got a lot of special events that are happening this year, some new things, some treasured things that we're bringing back. Give us a rundown of the entertainment schedule and maybe some of the special theme nights.

Yeah, the enter the entertainment special is really huge this year. We're bringing something, some some some different bands, some different theme nights. Uh there's lots of stuff going on. We have we're bringing back the first flyover that we've been able to have since COVID. We did not think we were gonna be able to have a flyover with the situation in the Middle East right now, but we just got it approved. So on June 11th, on Navy Appreciation Night, uh we'll have John Pemberton and the Shotgun Writers, a really good country band, and they're gonna be doing uh a flyover from the base. So opening night is always big. Uh August is here. They've been a traditional opening band for for probably, I would say, 15 years. Uh that's a big night. And we just have all kinds of uh firefighter appreciations. Local history night's gonna be a big night here in town. Uh we've got a K-Jug Country concert. K-Jug used to do a cut a country concert on an opposite night than the market, and it would be on like a Wednesday or something. Well, this year K-Jug Country Night is gonna be at the market, and they'll we'll have some up-and-coming artists that K-Jug will bring into town, and we'll have the K-Jug Country Night at Thursday night marketplace. Halloween night's always huge. Uh, we uh we do a trick-or-treat for the kids, and uh Max Headroom is in town and they're in full costume, and uh it's a fun night to see everybody in costume and dancing around and eating, and uh, you know, it's just a it's just a good night. So there's a there's a there's a lot going on. I mean I could go down through the whole list, but there's 27 nights of of uh mom's night out, small business appreciation, local history night, dairy appreciation night, uh happy independence day, firefighters appreciation night, national ice cream week, picnic in the park, cajunk country concert, farmers appreciation, food truck appreciation, volunteer appreciation night, uh paint downtown pink, health and wellness night. So there's all kinds of themes. So it's a it's a lot of fun, and I believe that it's posted on our website now, so you can go to our website, uh, go to Thursday Night Marketplace, and and you'll scroll down. You can see Thursday Night Marketplace calendar, and that'll open up and you can see which bands are going to be which nights. We've got some reggae coming, we've got some country coming, we've got the classic rock coming, we've got some a few more local bands coming this year. So I'm excited about all of that. It's something a little something for everybody.

You can get the schedule on their website, the mainstreethanford.com. And as Jim said, you can go to the Main Street Hanford page and click on Thursday Marketplace, and you can get the list of events that are happening. Uh, I know Jim talked it through it real fast. He's really excited about getting started on this. Uh, but it lists, I'd like to highlight uh one of them, just a selfish plug here. On June 4th, Local History Night, as many of you know, I'm very involved in local history, president of the Carnegie Museum of Kings County, and we're helping uh with the local history night. And on June 4th, we'll have a booth set up with some of the exhibits that we have currently in our building, Kings County Exhibit, and looking forward to the car show, which will be the Saturday after that, which Main Street Hanford is also a co-sponsor of that event. And we'll have brochures for our historic Hanford walking tour. The museum's been sponsoring this for about a year, and uh there'll be some docents there uh willing to help you uh learn more about the history of Hanford and learn more about your local history. Just one thing, Rob, right there.

Um, as a uh resident here, uh I came through Everybody's Irish, which is a beer tasting event in downtown Hanford, and the Carnegie participated. So I came through and visited the Carnegie. And if you haven't come and checked that uh display out. Building Kings County, it is amazing. It's it's done very, very well, and it's a it's a just a treasure of information about how Hanford was formed and how some of the other cities were formed in Kings County and their history. It's it's amazing. So it's well worth the price of admission. I've been here myself and I've can I've convinced probably 30 other people to come to it because it's done so very, very well. So they're doing a great job. Well, thank you.

Vendor Demand And Parking Reality

We get visitors from Amtrak uh now that the cart station is here. We get a lot of foot traffic, so yeah, it's picking up. All right, let's go back to the marketplace. So sure. Marketplace, I have did some research and I found out that there were over 260 applications for vendor space. That park is maxed out. We you don't have any more room.

We have no more room. We essentially have no more room. It's become a very, very popular spot for vendors to try to get into. You know, we have like I think we have 17 food vendors this year, we've got 15 farmers, uh, plus all the other informational and crafts and those kind of vendors. I think there's 126, 127 vendors actually squished into the park. And so we have really nowhere else to go. You know, in the early days we were on Irwin Street, um which was which was nice at the time, but it was so, you know, you have to think of it at 105 degrees, and you're setting up a vendor spot at 330 in the afternoon on this on the the asphalt. It was brutal. And so we moved into the park, kind of takes that down a little bit. I think it's probably six or seven degrees cooler in the park, but it's packed. Yeah, we're it was amazing to see the stack of applications this year. It was truly amazing.

I remember over the last couple of years trying to find a parking space around here, it's crazy. But there are city parking lots that you can park in that aren't that far away. You may not be able to park right next to the courthouse, but there are parking lots to the east, the west, the south, the north. Uh, if you can find a way to get there, you need to be at the marketplace.

It's a it's an age-old uh conversation in Hanford that we've got a parking problem, but it's really it's actually a parking and walking problem. If you if you're willing to park a block away or a block and a half away, it's easy to walk through. And and that's another good thing about the market that a lot of people don't realize. If you're getting all these people from out of town and they're having to park a couple blocks away and they're walking past your business and they're walking around through town, they're seeing that, oh hey, I didn't know that this this was here, I didn't know they had that restaurant, or hey, there's a clothing shop over here. So it it it shines a light on the whole uh like a four four-block area right in the middle of downtown.

Downtown Business Boost And New Growth

So let's talk about that impact on the downtown businesses. Some have extended hours, uh, some are doing specials and stuff. How has that impacted the stores in the area?

I think it's totally impacted the stores in the area. I think I just alluded to it. You're getting people from out of town, and whether you won you want to believe it or not, Hanford is is still a magnet for shopping for in in the area, from the base to Lemoore to Fowler to Selma. People come to Hanford because there's a lot of people that don't want to go into Visea or go into Fresno to shop. They end up coming to Hanford because we have all those amenities around us. And so the small business guys that are downtown can if if they do adjust their hours a little bit and get involved a little bit, it's it's gonna affect their business greatly. And I think, you know, because of that, we've got things like off the vine that is open downtown, and we've just everybody's just heard that poor Richards is coming back to town and taking over the Hot Forge building, gonna sell Hot Forge beer. Uh there's things that Barrel House has bought the courthouse, which is huge. And people, I don't know if people realize how huge that is, but those guys and that business is a magnet for other business, and so there's a lot of excitement building in downtown for sure.

Yeah, we had a steam land on the show uh a couple months ago, and Kevin shared with us uh the plans for the courthouse, and uh boy, that's gonna be amazing. I'm glad that we're still able still able to use the stage uh because that technically belongs to them now.

It does, yeah. And and you know, and I hadn't mentioned superior dairy starting construction and gonna be back, you know, as a sit-down restaurant. And and I uh uh the Zonvelds should shared uh photos with me the other day, and I'm I was just amazed at what it's gonna be beautiful inside. It's gonna be it. I mean, it's already got a name for itself, it's already got the history, but they are gonna make it, it's it's amazing what it's gonna look like. And it's still gonna have the same feel as superior, but it's just gonna be up upscaled, you know.

Well, Jim's still on my thunder. I actually had them scheduled for an interview here in a couple weeks. No, no. We're we're uh we had a sit-down uh with them a few weeks ago talking about the plans, and then they wanted to get through some of the demolition work before uh we were able to actually sit down and talk details of what they're planning on doing. And I'm excited to uh include them in actually the next exhibit at the Carnegie Museum. We're actually going to have items from McConaughey's Bakery and Superior Dairy and probably a couple of other uh businesses that people want to know more about. So that opens in July and we'll go through to December. So, Jim, this marketplace means so much to the community. It means so much to you, and people appreciate you when you kind of inform the community what's going on during the breaks in between the bands. Uh, we certainly don't suffer from a lack of information at those marketplaces. And I would imagine some of those downtown speakers are gonna help get the word out, not only music, but uh announcements and such as well, yeah?

Music System That Changes Downtown

Yeah, we're we're really proud of that. Uh Main Street was able to purchase that uh with an outfit out of Fresno that's done music in downtown other areas, and that was we've talked about that for probably six, eight years at Main Street about doing that, and we were able to kick that off this year. That's like a huge project. It was a huge project, and we did it like right out of the chute this year, and so we you know, we're really proud about that. I mean, if you walk around down here at all, now you hear the music playing from from about the central part of the park to 7th Street, Dowdy, and Irwin. Anywhere you walk in that area, you'll you'll hear the music. And uh, and and the hopes are that uh that as as the city uh you know, uh the they have a grant that's coming on board here pretty quick, and I I've I hope that they will help us expand that out and and maybe cover even a bigger area with the music. But it's beautiful right now. You come down here on a on a Sunday morning when there's nobody roaming around and take a walk and listen to the music, it's it's an amazing thing.

Or on a Wednesday afternoon, we were just setting up and uh I could totally totally hear the music and it just gives you that vibe of stuff is happening.

It's another proud thing that you can grab onto as a community and and gives you an idea that hey, there is something there's something going on in downtown. Exactly.

All right, so once again, the Thursday night marketplace kicks off on Thursday, May 7th at 5 30 p.m. at the Civic Park. And Jim, as always, we love hearing your previews of the marketplace, and we look forward to seeing you on May 7th.

Remember, uh circle on your calendar. June 11th is going to be that flyover by the Lamar Naval Air Station jet. So that's gonna be something special. Uh again, the local history night is gonna be huge, and the K-Jug Country concert, uh, August the 20th, is going to be at the Thursday Night Marketplace, so that'll be a huge night. People come from all over for those K-Jug Country concerts, so we're looking forward to that too. All right. Well, thanks for having me.

Thanks for having me. All right, we'll see you next time.

Local Baseball And Softball Scores

And now it's time for Hamford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley. We'll start with baseball, where the first place Sierra Pacific baseball team continued their winning ways, taking down Washington Union in both games of the series last week. Monday's game featured a steady dose of Golden Bears offense, backed up by a complete game shutout from junior Breck Mercado, allowing only two hits, striking out ten in the seven to nothing win. In Thursday's game at Sierra Pacific, the Golden Bears offense picked up right where it left off, highlighted by a three-hit day from Bryce Costa in the four to nothing win. The Golden Bears continue to keep pace with Kingsburg in league play, with both teams now at 8 2 on the year in Tri County Kings League action. Sierra Pacific will have a pair of non league games this week against Hanford West before taking on Kerman next week to close out league play and the regular season. The Hanford High Baseball team split their pair of league games with Lamore last week as the Bullpups sit at third place in the WIL with a six and three league mark. Wednesday's win was propelled by a stellar showing from senior Cole Scannick, who knocked in a pair of runs at the plate and came in as a pitcher to record the final two outs and close out the seven-two win. Friday's game in Hanford came down to the wire, tied at three after six innings. The Tigers attacked for three runs in the top of the seventh, putting all the pressure on the Bullpups, and despite scoring two runs, the Hanford High Comeback fell short, seven to six the final score. The Bullpups enter the home stretch of WYL action with five games against five WYL teams, starting this week at Dainuba and home versus Taler Union. And the Hanford West baseball team faced off against league leading Selma twice last week, with both games going in Selma's favor as the Huskies fall to nine and thirteen overall, three and seven in league play, with a pair of non-league games with Sierra Pacific on the schedule this week. We'll stick with Hanford West, but over to softball, where the Huskies softball team went two and oh last week, picking up wins over Sierra Pacific and Emanuel. The 11-1 run rule victory over Sierra Pacific featured five different Huskies picking up multiple hits, while Erica Hernandez led the way with four runs batted in. In Thursday's league game against Emmanuel, a five-run seventh gave the Huskies the cushion they needed in route to the seven-to-two win. Hanford West now sits at three and two in league play, two games behind Kingsburg, with four games remaining in the season, starting this week at Selma and home versus Kerman. The Hanford Highs softball team fell in both of their games last week, starting in heartbreaking fashion on Wednesday, where tied at five in the bottom of the seventh, Michigan was able to plate the winning run and walk off the Bullpups by a final of six to five. Friday's home game with Lamore saw the Tigers attack early with the Bullpups unable to answer in the 9-1 loss. Dinuba and Taler Union are on the schedule this week for Hanford High. As for Sierra Pacific softball, after the loss to Hanford West early in the week, the Golden Bears were overcome by League Foe Exeter 10-5. Two games back of league leading Reedley, Sierra Pacific will look to gain some ground in the league standings this week with games versus CVC and Washington Union. As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

And that wraps things up for this week's show. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to support it, then head over to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation, or you can Venmo me directly. Stay connected, join the Hanford Insider email list at HanfordInsider.com. You'll get weekly updates plus an exclusive newsletter delivered right to your inbox. I'd also really appreciate your help spreading the word about the show by liking and sharing on social media or just telling a friend. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and YouTube at Hanford Insider for more content and updates. If you've got a show idea, send me an email at HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening to the Hanford Insider Podcast. Have a great week.