Last Saturday, 37 young business owners between the ages of 12-24 gathered at our Ōtautahi Youth Market in a celebration of local creativity and youth enterprise. Over 300 people came through the market throughout the day, and we were delighted to see visitors leaving with lots of crafts, baking, new jewellery and other goodies! The market was organized and run by Raise Up youth volunteers for Youth Week 2023.
No stall fees, lots of promotion on social media, having live music on the day, providing tables for stallholders that didn’t have them… all of these things made a difference to the youth who participated and contributed to the success of the event. There were a lot of learnings for the Raise Up crew as this was their first ever market and their largest scale event so far. They took each challenge in their stride and delivered a hugely successful day.
Stallholders for the market were found by putting out the call to local businesses run by young people. The response was overwhelming with over 40 applications to be involved – more than we could fit in the space! When we first started planning this event, we weren’t sure how many people would sign up or if our idea was a good one… The sheer number of stalls showed us that there is a real need for spaces for young people to sell their products and gain awareness of their small businesses.
An obstacle for many young business owners is the stall fees that other markets require. It can be a risk to pay for a space and there is no guarantee that your products will sell or how much you will make on the day. Thanks to funding from Ara Taiohi and the use of a free venue at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church we were able to organize our Youth Market in a way that meant we could give stallholders a space for free. We got such positive feedback on this factor alone and we are keen to reduce financial obstacles more in the future too!
Highlights from the day
• Live music from Micah Heath, Olivia Lily, Lucy Munro and Chicks from Corea which totally brought the vibe to the market
• Seeing all the beautiful products made locally by the young people – we never knew how many small businesses there were in Ōtautahi!
• The pre-market Health and Safety briefing from Raise Up members Jess and Mila… super professional!
• Witnessing so many stallholders build connections with other business owners and share details, we love to see creativity being shared and future collaborations planned
• The food!! From smoked salmon sandwiches to beautiful Japanese patisseries and baked goods, there were so many yummy treats
Stayed tuned for future markets and events… we have big plans for Ōtautahi!
