About Downtown Martinez Live

Downtown Martinez Live started with a QR code in Ashland, Oregon.

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My husband and I were on vacation in Ashland when, while walking downtown, a flyer caught my eye. It was incredibly simple. Just one question: “What’s poppin’?” And underneath it was a QR code.

Of course, I scanned it.

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It took me to an Instagram page with a link, and when I clicked it, up popped a spreadsheet listing events happening throughout Ashland. I immediately turned to my husband and said: “See! THIS is what Martinez needs. A simple list of all the events happening downtown.” And that was the spark for Downtown Martinez Live.

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When we got home, I started putting the idea together for Martinez. The goal was pretty straightforward: create one place where people could easily find out what was happening downtown without having to search through dozens of individual social media accounts and websites.

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It started with events and live music, but the more I worked on it, the more I realized there was much more I wanted to share. The restaurants and tasting rooms. The shops. The musicians and artists. The waterfront. Public art. Theatre. And those little things around town you might have walked past a hundred times without noticing.

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So Downtown Martinez Live has grown into more than just the simple event list that inspired it. It's becoming a local guide to what's happening, where to go, and what there is to discover in Historic Downtown Martinez. 

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I'm not the City, a tourism bureau, or a downtown business organization. I'm simply a local who wanted an easier way to know what was going on—and figured I probably wasn't the only one.

The goal is still the same as it was that day in Ashland: Make it easier to get out and experience downtown.

See you downtown!

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