by Bonnie Collings
The Warragul Farmers Market will move to a new location at Logan Park in February, making way for the new Culture and Connection Precinct at Civic Park Warragul.

The first market in the new location will be held on Saturday, February 15.
Warragul Farmers Market manager Lauren said the move was due to construction of the new Culture and Connection Precinct, across from the West Gippsland Arts Centre on Civic Place.
"The council let us know towards the end of last year that as the new cultural centre is established, it will block off Civic Place with all the works," she said. "We basically had to find a home while that's going on."
"At the moment we're hoping that we can go back to Civic Place after the construction finishes, but we've been given a timeframe of 18 to 24 months for it (construction). It looks like Logan Park is going to be our home for a while."
Market-goers can still expect all their favourite elements of the market, including local produce, food and artisan goods. The farmers' market will still be held from 8:30am to 1:00pm on the third Saturday of each month.
"We're trying to keep things as close to normal as possible," Lauren said. "The new space is relatively flat, flatter than Civic Place so we're hoping it will still be accessible for people with mobility issues and people with prams.
"There will still be a food truck area, we're still going to have our music set up. We're also going to have the Lifeblood van there a few times during the year."
"Unfortunately, the space is slightly smaller than what we've got at the moment, but all of our regulars will still be attending," Lauren said. "It just means that we'll have to be a bit more stringent will our casual (stallholders)."
Lauren said the new space at Logan Park will have the same "family-friendly, welcoming environment" as the market in Civic Park. Dogs also are welcome in the new space.
"Even though there's not as much greenery as there is in Civic Park, there's a good play area for kids and a lot of room to move around," she said. "We love our furry friends, they're definitely welcome to still come to the market."
Lauren said Logan Park met the majority of requirements needed to run the market.
"We looked far and wide for a good space to go into," she said. "We wanted it to be as central to town as possible, have parking around it, be accessible for people with mobility issues, have power and parking for stallholders. There were a lot of things that we needed to tick off and Logan Park ticked most of the boxes for us."
Acknowledging the market brought foot traffic into the Warragul central business district, Lauren said choosing a location close to town was important to the market committee.
"We're really hoping that (the move) doesn't take away from the businesses in town as well, we tried to keep it as close to the main part of town as possible," she said.
"Unfortunately, we are going to have to separate from the arts market, but we couldn't find a space that was big enough for both of us."
Lauren said the market committee intended to "keep everything running as close to normal as possible."
"The committee has worked hard over the years to make the farmers' market what it is, we really want to continue to bring that to our stallholders and our customers," she said.