A new community-focused market is giving Carson City’s small businesses a platform to thrive, drawing thousands of attendees and redefining the local pop-up experience.
The idea for Sun & Dust Market was created by Carson City native and Carson High alumna Natasha Miller after she was inspired by a massive vendor market in Santa Rosa, California.
“I completely fell in love with the community they had,” Miller said. “Everyone knew each other. Everyone supported each other. There was no competition, just genuine connection and people having a good time. I remember thinking, ‘I wish we had this in Carson.’ I also thought, ‘There’s no way we even have this many small businesses here.’ I was wrong.”
Miller said she was apprehensive before her first market launched in September, so much so that she only required vendors provide a donation of their choosing, and she paid most of the $1,500 rental space fee herself.
“I wanted to make it accessible, but I was also second guessing it — I didn’t know if a hundred people would show up, or no one at all.”
Wha Miller did not expect was the 3,000 attendees who came through the doors at Fuji Park to shop from her 156 total vendors.
Since then, she’s held a Sun & Dust market roughly every other month; the vendors would prefer it be monthly, she said, but the city explains if she did host a market once a month, they’d be considered a “farmers market” and have to pay a much larger event fee.
However, it does give her more time to plan. The market has circulated through a couple of locations in Carson City during the fall and winter including the Community Center and Fuji Park, which have provided both indoor and outdoor booth space.
“I wanted these businesses to be seen and heard,” she said. “And what’s happened since then has honestly blown me away.”
She has an active list of more than 300 small businesses who hope to be involved; however, due to size constraints of the spaces in town, they typically have hosted around 60 at the community center, including indoor and outdoor spots, or around 150 at Fuji Park.
Being limited in who can participate makes it so that each event is curated; only true small local businesses can be involved; Miller prohibits multi-level marketing companies and online drop-shippers, focusing entirely on handmade goods, authentic local artisans, and purposefully sourced items.
Shoppers can expect to find a wide variety of unique goods, including locally mined turquoise jewelry, custom woodwork, natural skincare products, handmade textiles, and fresh baked goods among others.
The market’s next event is scheduled for April 11 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Carson City Community Center. It will feature 62 indoor and outdoor vendors, alongside local food and beverage options such as Sweet Baby Donuts, the Trough mobile bar, Big Blue Brews and several other food truck options.
Beyond simple shopping, Sun & Dust places a strong emphasis on community connection. Miller introduced a “booth bestie” system, which allows vendor friends to set up next to each other, fostering a collaborative rather than competitive environment.
She said while customers may question why similar booths are placed next to each other versus spread out throughout the market, Miller said she would much rather have the markets be collaborative.
“That’s a big thing for me; I don’t want to be [vending] at a market for five hours with a bunch of people that I don’t know if I could be next to my best friend selling stuff and having fun at the same time. Why would the vendors not get to have fun, too?”
In addition, the markets have instituted a new “Dust Bunny” portion of the market in which entrepreneurial kiddos have the opportunity to host their own booths to sell their goods and learn the basics of running a small business firsthand.
Philanthropy also remains a core component of the market’s mission, Miller said.
For the upcoming event, Sun & Dust is partnering with the nonprofit Rice Street Foundation, of which Miller is a board member, and Food for Thought.
A raffle will be held, and attendees can either purchase raffle tickets, or they are encouraged to bring non-perishables, such as canned goods or protein shakes, to receive raffle tickets.
Each market has a dedicated fundraiser as a part of the event, which supports either a local program or nonprofit.
In the case of this upcoming market, all funds raised from the raffle will go toward opening a “confidence closet” in Carson City schools and supporting behavioral health services.
Miller said when it comes to supporting these community endeavors, it’s the small business community more than any other demographic that provides the biggest support.
“The level of support from this community is unreal,” Miller said. “These small businesses show up for each other and for our fundraisers every single time. I can’t get a single big company to donate. But these small businesses? They donate — Every. Single. Market.”
To learn more about the Sun & Dust Market, you can visit them at https://www.sunanddustmarket.com, on Facebook, or on Instagram.
