Lines of people snaking along food trucks, children dueling with stringy balloons twisted into swords, and complementing guitar chords created an aura of the familiar as the parking lot of the Mary Winspear Centre hosted the inaugural Sidney Street Market of 2021 scheduled to run every Sunday until and including Oct.
Last year, COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the market, which has historically drawn thousands to a closed-off section of Beacon Avenue on Thursday nights during summer months.
This returning sense of normality also has an upside for Dada, who says he has been off work for the last seven months.
They include a separate entry and exit, requirements to wear masks and use hand sanitizers, and other measures such as managed traffic flow.