ALBURY'S biggest market will be back next month after being forced to shutdown for more than three months because of the coronavirus.
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The Kiewa Street Market will be reborn on Sunday July 5 with organisers from the Rotary Clubs of Belvoir-Wodonga and Albury North making the decision following an easing in restrictions.
"Up until Friday the NSW Health Department had still banned markets except for food markets, it's only since Friday that they've changed that," Rotary club member and organiser Trevor Pearce said.
"Now it's going to take us a couple of weeks to get stallholders back and get them booked in and to put our COVID plan in place and get our Rotarians trained with new procedures."
Those measures will include a cap of 350 patrons to fit in with the social distancing requirement of one person per four square metres.
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"Around this time of the year we typically have 900 adults through the gate but that's spread over four hours, so we don't think we'll exceed that limit, but we'll have controls in place if we do," Mr Pearce said.
There will also be liquid soap provided and separate entrances and exits to spread the market-goers around the multi-storey car park in Kiewa Street.
The 12 square metre sites provided for each stallholder means extra distancing between traders is seen as unnecessary.
Mr Pearce expects that the return of the market will be strongly welcomed by vendors.
"For many of them it's a big income source for them, so they've been very keen to get started again and we've lots of queries from the general public," he said.
Mr Pearce estimated the closure of the market since March had resulted in a $30,000 loss of revenue for the Rotary Clubs.
Meanwhile, the easing of restrictions in NSW also allows cinemas to reopen with social distancing from July 1.
Regent Cinemas Albury general manger Kelly Davis said July 16 was the likely opening date for her moviehouse, with new films expected to be available for showing by then.
Most cinemas will be restricted to 42 seats with screenings having to be staggered to avoid a build-up of people at the snack bar.
There will also be longer gaps between sessions due to COVID-19 cleaning needs.
Victoria has set a date of June 22 for cinemas being able to restart.
