The City of Swift Current collected the fruits of their labour earlier this week, reaping some provincial hardware.

On Monday afternoon during the SUMA Convention, Swift Current's Market Square was awarded first place in the Saskatchewan Municipal Awards.

Market Square, which runs Saturdays from spring to fall, captured not only the recognition from the provincial audience but also the local audience, including Swift Current's mayor.

"I'm beyond proud of Marlene Johnson and her legion of volunteers and City staff that go out of their way every Saturday from May to September," Denis Perrault said. "It's now become a Saskatchewan-known Market Square."

Perrault also noted that in the seven years of existence of the event, it's grown from a handful of participants to thousands, and according to Perrault that's a testament to the Market Square team's hard work.

"What it shows is that great things can happen when people work together and this is a prime example of that," he said. "This was an idea that came about from our City administration and I was on council at the time and we supported the idea, although I can honestly say none of us on council saw how big it was going to be. It's amazing to see all the people that get such value out of Market Square every Saturday."

The news broke about Swift Current winning the provincial award in late October and the celebrations have been ongoing since.

"We've definitely been celebrating internally," Perrault said. "When the video was played at the awards, she (Marlene Johnson) had people come up from communities across the province asking if they could come be vendors at our Market Square."

With the event continuing to get bigger in terms of vendors and attendance, the city has a plan for the increased growth that includes heading north on 1st Avenue Northeast as an option.