Big market to warm winter night

RUG up and walk through a winter wonderland at Barkly Square next Friday evening.

For those that love local shopping, but not necessarily the cold weather, the community centre is hosting a Winter Wonderland Market indoors from 4pm to 8pm on Friday 21 July.

Event organiser and BGT management assistant Brooke Fiddaman said the market is set to be the biggest ever held at Barkly Square, with stalls not just on the ground floor, but upstairs.

“Our aim is to get everyone out of the house for a winter evening, but it’s still going to be warm inside,” she said.

“We have 60 stalls coming at the moment, lots of them new, and we’ve estimated that over 1000 people will attend.

“We’ve got a lot of local small businesses, creators, artists, clothing and accessories for adults and kids, food, chocolate, lollies, crystals; all the market staples.”

There’ll be plenty to keep children occupied with snowman making, and snowflake cookie decorating activities planned, alongside a scavenger hunt, games like oversized chess and beanbag toss, and a meet-and-greet with Frosty the Snowman.

A glow-in-the-dark fairy floss stall is also set to put smiles on little faces, while entertainment is provided by Deb and Mercy, Tom and Freya, the Thursday Night Choir, and Hanz on Drumming.

The courtyard will be full off food trucks including SK-Busik Korean dumplings, Smoke on the Weir barbecue, Flying Chillies Malaysian and Indonesian food, OMG Donuts, Double Dutchess Pancakes, The Hippie Whippy, and coffee and hot chocolate from Spinner Kitchen and Choccolato Calda.

There will also be a sausage sizzle, mulled wine, and more drinks available from Kilderkin Distillery and Chepstowe Vineyard.

Throughout the night, Barkly Square will also be a drop-off point for the Ballarat Winter Appeal.

“We’ll have a place for people to leave non-perishable food, clothing, and blankets, and QR codes around for people to make donations,” Ms Fiddaman said.

“We’ll take all of those donations to The Salvation Army, who are accepting things on behalf of the Ballarat Foundation, as one of the appeal’s beneficiary agencies.”