Downtown question

I took a quick day trip down to Knoxville from Louisville because I wanted to check out the city and compare it to Chattanooga. Knoxville was quite great and the weather was very mild for this time of year. I went to the farmers market and basically walked all around Downtown and the South shore. My question is, is Downtown always that vibrant or was a lot of that the Farmers Market? The farmers market was pretty grand too, but I don't have many to compare it with.

My wife and love to tour southeast cities for a day or two just to get a feel. We were taken aback with Downtown Knox. Cool place, did we just catch lighting in a bottle with the weather and Farmers Market or is it always so lively?