Riverside Arts Market - Jacksonville, FL

RAM-TV - Your weekly under-the-bridge video. Click below to start.

Read the article abour Riverside & Avondale in the London Newspaper! 2009 Year-End Report for RAM RAM has had a spectacular first year. Since its Grand Opening on Saturday, April 4, 2009, the Riverside Arts Market has become one of Jacksonville's most popular free weekend family outings. RAM is a Jacksonville phenomenon and has had a major impact on the city: » It took 16 years of planning » For something that did not even exist a year ago, it has made a major change in Jacksonville. » Economic impact = several million dollars. (The market has had over $1 million in on-site sales, and add to this the salaries, purchase cost of artists' and vendor's raw materials, hotel rooms, sales tax, advertising, printing, stimulus of local businesses, etc., and the three-fold recycling of money in the local economy, RAM has had well over $4 million in local economic impact. » Over 700 different artists have exhibited at RAM. » Nearly a half million visitors have attended RAM. (38 weeks x 15,000 avg. per week. RAM is the largest drawing event in the city.) » The average price of item sold at RAM is $30 to $50, but some artists have sold work in the thousands of dollars » RAM has over 150 volunteers that have participated at RAM. 30 of those are semi-regular weekly participants. (38 weeks x 12 volunteers per week x 4 hour shifts per week = 1, 824 volunteer hours). Plus RAM’s steering committee “RAMROD” has put in well over 8,000 hours, pushing RAM volunteers into over 10,000 hours. » Over 250 different entertainers have performed at RAM. » Over 100 non-profit organizations have received free exposure at RAM. » RAM has become one of the top twenty community markets in the U.S. in its first year, and RAM was recognized in USA Today as Top 10 River City Destinations. » RAM is the largest weekly free outdoor arts and entertainment venue in Florida. » RAM has become one of the most spectacular public spaces in Jacksonville, if not Florida. RAM has a devoted following of weekly local visitors, and out-of-town visitors have begun choosing RAM as a destination for their vacations (not just a stop on the way to Disney). » In a harsh economic environment, RAM has provided: ° free entertainment for thousands of people, close to home. ° employment and income for hundreds, if not thousands, of people. ° low-cost storefronts for local entrepreneurs to start, grow, and promote their businesses. » Exposure at RAM has stimulated hundreds of business opportunities outside of RAM for its artists, vendors, entertainers, and staff members. » RAM has promoted environmental friendly public activities, including biking and walking to shop, shortened driving distances for shopping and entertainment, recycling, home-grown produce, etc. » RAM’s success has spun off a growing number of other local markets. » RAM has stimulated the arts; it has stimulated awareness of the importance to buy hand-made locally-produced products; it has promoted riverfront activities. » RAM has had dozens of newspaper and magazine articles, hundreds of blog and social media impressions, several national media attentions, and a documentary film. » RAM has over 1,000 free parking spaces available. Read these comments about RAM's Farmer's Market Located beneath the sheltering expanse of the Fuller Warren Bridge structure, this huge weekend market has over one football field’s covered area and features the work of 160 artists, accompanied by musical entertainment, street performers, food vendors, and a fresh produce market. RAM also provides a dependable and highly affordable marketplace for artists to sell their artwork, in a delightful environment that serves as an inexpensive weekend storefront for their creative efforts.		Nearly 30,000 attend RAM's Grand Re-Opening Day last Saturday! On Saturday, March 6th, the Riverside Arts Market returned with a grand reopening celebration that featured three live bands, a barbershop quartet, 18 street performers, and over 160 vendors of diverse local art, food produce, and nearly 30,000 excited visitors! The celebration began with Florida’s Shortest Big Parade ever, led by the Raines High School Marching Band and City Councilmen Michael Corrigan and Bill Bishop. Market Director Tony Allegretti. “RAM had an amazing debut in 2009, garnering national media attention and attracting nearly half a million visitors. But our new year is off to fantastic start with sunch a huge crowd on our Grand ReOpening Day. This year promises to be bigger, bolder and even better in RAM’s patented “Under the Bridge, Over the Top” style.” RAM 2.0 started at 8 am with the River Walk2RAM, a healthy living initiative sponsored by Jacksonville Orthopaedic Institute; after enjoying yoga and prizes at three area parks, participants walked to the parade staging area at the corner of Riverside Avenue and Post Street. The Raines High School Marching Vikings Band led the parade in a two-block march to RAM. The Market opened with an official ribbon cutting and serenade by the Shell Game barbershop quartet. For more coverage, photos, and video, click on this. Warning: is coming to RAM! click here for details. RAM Factoids for 2009: RAM sold/gave away over 2,000 pineapples in one day. RAM had a dog parade, a national break-dance championship, giant puppets, a man escaping from 2 straight jackets and chains while hanging upside down from an 18-foot tower, the Guinness Book of Records juggler, two state-champion magicians, two fire boats shooting water cannons in the river, a bag piper, a barbershop quartet, a body-painted man in a loin cloth playing a didgeridoo, an alligator exhibit, a dancing gorilla, a sitar concert, three full orchestras, zombies dancing on stage, several gravity defying acrobats, 31 clowns in one day, a human volcano, the entire cast of the musical “Hair”, a 7-foot-tall masked magician, 2 human statues, over 20 belly dancers, over 60 dancing children, 4 hula hoopers, a human pretzel, a Viking ship, an Improv troupe, 10 celebrity chefs feeding over 1,000 people free food, a 9-foot-tall stilt-walking beauty queen, 38 different free Children’s Creativity programs, 2 puppet shows, a bubble party, 4 balloon artists, a hip-hop popper, a lacrosse demonstration, H1N1 flu shots provided, an 80-year-old fire truck, a fencing demonstration, a hybrid car test drive, a free health-screening clinic, several live television broadcasts, a Halloween costume competition, a weekly bicycle valet, pedicab service, and a backpack collection drive. Wait till you see what we have in store for you in 2010!