After a long, sometimes 100-degree run, the Riverbank Farmers Market folded its tents, packed up its bins of fresh fruits and vegetables, and closed its 20-week run last week.

Drawing a sizeable crowd for the finale, Tuesday, Sept. 28 was the last day of taco trucks and other food vendors, arts and crafts booths, and, of course, local farmers. The weekly events began on May 18.

That first week, pop-up canopies lined the block on Santa Fe Street, between Third and Fourth streets, and a good sized crowd came by to peruse and purchase wares in downtown Riverbank. Even busier in the second and third weeks, vendor booths spilled over into Plaza del Rio Park to accommodate the demand.

As the heat came and went over the summer, attendance would wane just a bit from week to week, but in all, patrons were relatively consistent. As with vendor participation over the summer, crowds varied in size from week to week. Many of the vendors had a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in season, there was typically food and beverages each week as well, along with merchandise booths of all sorts.

The first Farmers Market in Riverbank was held in 2003, the idea of then City Clerk Linda Abid-Cummings, and also held on Santa Fe Street, in front of the Riverbank Historical Museum.

Since then, it has moved to a few different locations around the city. It has been held at Community Center Park, as well as the parking lot of Cool Hand Luke’s. There have been a variety of organizations managing the markets, the latest of which is a downtown business group.