Stalls still open for Begonia Market

WITH this year’s annual Lake Wendouree Begonia Makers Market not going ahead, local market lovers Lisa Cressey and Glenda Pyne have taken to organising a replacement.

To take place inside St Patrick’s Hall in the CBD on the long weekend in March, the Begonia City Makers Market will provide a space for stallholders to sell unique wares for marketgoers to peruse.

“This is the inaugural market, I’m usually part of the Begonia City’s Designer Creative Market up at the Lake but because this year they are not running it, we decided to run it instead,” Ms Pyne said.

“We contacted the City of Ballarat and they said go for it, so this is our first one together and the first one for the Begonia City Makers Market.

“The fact that we’re at that point where we can come back and run a market is great, for some of these stall holders, this is all of their income, so we’re hoping it will be a successful event.”

Set to include handmade crafts, art, plants, designer textiles and a specialised market pantry for home grown food and produce, the market aims to showcase some of the best producers within the region.

“We have Art Brush, Just Cos and Modern Rustic Candles, Apple Crumble Clothing, Sweet Sage Co. and a variety of artists,” Ms Cressey said.

“We also have our stalls, Dimple Dot Designs and the Wheat Bag Company which are Glenda’s and Studio Eclectic which is me, I do cards, art prints and key chains.

“A lot of them have come over from usually doing the Begonia Festival, hopefully this market translates to the usual great market that’s normally held.”

With applications for a stall space still open for producers, Ms Pyne said they are looking specifically for interesting and quirky wares from local makers.

“We can fit 35 plus with the COVID restrictions in place, that’s spacing all of the stalls out, and at the moment we have around 20 so we are still looking for some different stalls,” she said.

“There’s two different stall sizes, the bigger is $90 plus GST a day and the smaller one is $80 plus GST a day which is to cover the cost of the hall and the insurance.

“We’re both set to have our own stalls as well and because we’re both stallholders, as organisers we can really understand what a stallholder can expect from a market.”

For more information about the market or to apply for a stall, visit ballaratmakersmarketsco.com.