But now local pups will be taking center stage at the market.

This week, the Ogden Downtown Alliance — in conjunction with Alphia and Farmers Market Ogden — announced the inaugural Dogden Festival, set to occur during this Saturday’s Farmers Market Ogden, the final market of the summer season.

Cecily Kiss, community partnerships director at the Ogden Downtown Alliance, told the Standard-Examiner the new festival gives dog owners an opportunity to celebrate.

“Dogden is a celebration of our four-legged friends, the people and the pets that they love,” she said. “We will be having a dog parade as well as a dog festival in the municipal park.”

She said a new partnership with a pet food manufacturer and a long-held desire to celebrate the pups commonly found at Farmers Market Ogden led to the creation of the event.

“Alphia joined the Ogden Downtown Alliance as an annual partner,” she said. “Our board chair has wanted to celebrate dogs at the market for quite some time now, so we decided what better way to celebrate our four-legged friends and our new partnership with Alphia than having a Dogden Festival at the market.

Festivities begin at 8 a.m. Saturday in the Ogden Municipal Gardens. A dog parade is slated for 9 a.m., competitions and games at 10 a.m. and awards at noon. The overall event ends at 1 p.m. alongside Farmers Market Ogden.

Kiss said that, in addition to the parade and competitions for dogs, there would be free swag and an adoption event.

“We’ll be joining forces with four adoption partners,” she said. “They’ll be providing adoptable dogs that people can come and spend time with at the festival. We’ll have a private station where folks can meet with the adoptable dogs, learn about them, introduce them to any dogs that they might already have and spend some time with them.”

Jessica Anderson, marketing manager at the Ogden Downtown Alliance, told the Standard-Examiner the closest thing locally to this comes during Weber State University’s homecoming week.

“They do a dog parade that runs partly through the market,” she said. “But there’s never been a larger festival or something like that where it fully celebrates dogs and their owners downtown.”

Kiss said the event adds a lot to an already popular event.

“Dogden adds a whole new layer of fun and community spirit to Farmers Market Ogden,” she said. “Our market already brings people together to celebrate local art, food and culture, and this festival realy builds upon that by celebrating another thing we all love — our pets — and it’s creating a playful, family-friendly atmosphere where folks can come meet adoptable dogs and help them find their forever families.”

Anderson said the goal is to make the Dogden Festival a yearly staple of Farmers Market Ogden.

She said that, as of Thursday, there are still registration spaces available and that the first 200 dogs to check-in will receive a free Dogden bandana. The public is also welcome to come watch the festivities.

For more information, visit https://ogdendowntown.com/dogden/.