‘It feels nostalgic’: Regina Farmers’ Market hits 53rd season with Saturday’s return to downtown

The Regina Farmers' Market returned to Pat Fiacco Plaza on Saturday. (Damian Smith / CTV News)

Saturday kicked off the 53rd season of the Regina Farmers’ Market, with the location being in a familiar spot at Pat Fiacco Plaza.

Since 2024, the market has been held at Victoria Park on Wednesdays and at Confederation Park on Saturdays, due to construction. The outside market will now be there to stay every Wednesday and Saturday until Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

“It feels more like 2019,” said executive director Holly Laird, speaking about the number of vendors at the plaza.

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On opening day, there were a total of 52 vendors, with common sold items being honey, eggs, meat and vegetables.

“We’re hoping this season is going to bring a lot of people out,” Laird said. “People here today say it feels nostalgic, that they’ve missed it and they’ve missed us here. There was hesitation at first from the vendors, but a lot of them are really excited to be here today.”

It was the first time for a few Regina soda creators as well. After Natasha D’Cruze and Neil Lutz were watching Dragons Den a few years ago, they were inspired to create their own brand, landing on the idea of “Seb’s Soda,” named after their four-year-old dog.

“It took us a while to formulate it to what we want, to get the right flavour balance, and we wanted to keep it at nine grams of sugar,” D’Cruze explained.

They came up with the concept in January of 2025 but have only had cans sold at Italian Star Deli. Saturday was their first time selling outside of the ISD.

D’Cruze says that their sodas include all natural ingredients such as cane sugar, instead of additives like stevia, caffeine, and artificial flavours. Currently, they’re selling three flavours, cola, lemon-lime, and orange.

They say they were approved to sell last year but felt as though they weren’t ready.

“We thought maybe we’d have something up and running in five months, but it took a lot of learning and a lot of experimenting and going back to the drawing board to then get us to this place,” D’Cruze said. “We definitely thought we’d be here sooner, but I mean, that’s all a part of the journey.”

Seb’s Soda will be one of 180 vendors of small businesses and food producers approved to sell at the Regina Farmers’ Market this year.

“A farmers’ market is a really special part of the local food infrastructure of any community,” Laird said. “You can stack together a whole bunch of local businesses, producers and bring them together in one spot, so it’s a one stop shop for people to come in and connect with the people who are making, baking and growing their food.”

According to Laird, the Regina Farmers’ Market made $2.5 million in economic impact through the market and vendors in 2025. The analysis was conducted by Economic Development Regina, done in January 2026.