Business leaders hope that St. George's will be bustling with activity next month with the anticipated start of the Olde Towne Market.

Organisers hope the market, formerly known as the Ghost Town Market, will draw dozens of vendors to the East End — and more importantly hundreds of shoppers. Chairman of the East End Chamber of Commerce Cheryl Hayward-Chew said that a packed meeting with vendors on September 2 demonstrated strong interest in the project.

"We had a very good meeting with potential vendors," she said. "Based on the number of seats that were filled, it was very successful.

"The applications haven't gone out yet, so I don't know how many vendors will be included, but there is a lot of interest."

The market idea was one of several proposed by the Facebook group 'St. George's, BERMUDA — Revitalise!' as a way of helping the town, which has been going through tough economic times following the reduction of cruise ships.

This year only one cruise ship, Holland America Line's Veendam, was scheduled to make regular visits to the East End, but due to size limitations, the ship had to anchor at Murray's Anchorage and ferry visitors to and from the town.

Due to weather conditions the ship has not always been able to anchor and has gone straight to Hamilton instead.

Organisers hope the Olde Town Market will draw not only visitors, but also locals to St. George's by allowing licenced peddlers to set up shop to sell fish, produce, crafts and other goods.

Yesterday Mrs. Hayward said that organisers were putting together the final pieces on the plan, with a rollout of information expected next week.

"We're really tying the last ends together at this point," she said. "The next big step that we need to work on is sponsorship and advertising. I hope we can start seeing some of that next week."

If everything goes according to plan, Mrs. Hayward-Chew hopes to see the first Olde Towne Market night in less than a month. "We had planned to have everything up and running by October 2," she said.

"We knew other things were going on, like Harbour Nights, and we wanted to make sure that those were already done."

Last night, the Corporation of St. George's held a meeting at the Penno's Wharf Cruise Ship terminal to discuss the town hosting a Charitable Extravaganza Day, where charities could advertise and fund raise.

Earlier this week, Mayor Kenneth Bascome said of the proposed event: "The charities will have the opportunity to get their names out there, sell goods and find volunteers.

"Hopefully this will also bring more people to St. George's, making it mutually beneficial."