Lewisburg's Montwell Community Market Opens With Chocolate Festival, Live Music

Lewisburg's downtown commercial core is getting a new Saturday anchor this spring. The Montwell Community Market is set to open April 11 on the center square in front of the Clingman Center building at Montwell Commons, a deliberate debut timed to overlap with the Lewisburg Chocolate Festival — one of the region's busiest foot-traffic days of the year.

The site, an eight-acre tract on the historic Fort Savannah grounds, already draws visitors to The Old Red Mill Taphouse and Grill and Amy's Cakes and Cones. Organizers built out the center square to hold more than 30 vendor booths, with ADA-compliant restrooms, WiFi, electrical hookups, a demonstration garden, and a dedicated performance area included in the footprint.

On opening day, local farmers will sell vegetables and meats, bakers will bring a selection of goods to the tables, and artisans will display crafts across the square. A local band is scheduled to perform throughout the morning, layering a second music stage onto the Chocolate Festival programming already filling the surrounding streets. The festival itself runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with tasting tickets priced at $1 each and sold in booklets of five.

The market is structured as a producer market, requiring each participant to grow, raise, or make everything they sell. That standard is meant to keep dollars moving directly to Greenbrier Valley farmers and craftspeople rather than to resellers, and it positions the Montwell market as a distinct economic venue from pop-up or consignment-style events. For producers who depend on weekend markets for a significant share of annual revenue, a high-visibility opening tied to the Chocolate Festival offers the kind of first-day crowd that typically takes a new market an entire season to build on its own.