Market season has descended on Victoria with everything from arts and crafts to flea and food markets taking over public parks and parking lots across the city.
But there’s always room for more and the new kid on the block — a one-time-only event that is uniting a myriad of trendy, hip, emerging artists and market vendors — is promising, “This ain’t your grandma’s market.”
United Eclectic is the brainchild of three local emerging artists who were looking for the right outlet to sell the painting, collage, jewelry and custom greeting cards they create.
After a year of thinking about it, sisters Jasmine and Rachel Nielsen and friend Alexa Gilker decided to plan the market their dreams are made of.
“There are quite a few different types of markets in Victoria,” says Gilker. “There are lots of sweet markets here, lots of sweet grannies doing sweet things — my grandma is one of them — but we wanted something that focuses on the younger, emerging local talents and creating an event where other people like us, who are looking for this type of stuff, could come knowing that they wouldn’t have to sift through and find the one or two vendors that cater to them. Everything at this market has been curated specifically for young emerging artists and their fans.”
Expect to find jewelry makers, painters, photographers, potters, greeting-card makers, clothing designers and more handmade handicrafts at the 25 tables in the Church of Our Lord Hall (626 Blanshard).
“It’s an event to showcase what young artists in Victoria are doing that maybe others haven’t thought of before,” says Rachel.
“We really wanted to make an affordable event where the tables aren’t very expensive for young artists like ourselves that really focused on the hand-made and creative projects,” says Jasmine.
More of a summer event than just a market, United Eclectic also features a community art project and a full-day showcase of musical entertainment by up and coming local bands and musicians, including snoqualmie (Blake Enemark formerly of We Are The City and Forestry), Northcote (Matt Goud formerly of Means), Daniel Kingsbury, Bret Enemark, Chelsea Vaughn, Ruairi Gallagher and Janet Walker.
“We were thinking of a space where everyone’s together, but everyone’s unique,” says Jasmine.
“We just want to unite all the eclectics in the city,” adds Gilker. M
United Eclectic
Saturday, June 9
10am to 5pm
Church of Our Lord Hall (626 Blanshard)
$1 entrance fee. Cash only
No ATM on site
unitedeclectic.com