I haven’t managed to post since May but since this is my last market of the year for me I thought I should make an exception! I’ll be at Mono, Kings’ Court, Glasgow, from 12 noon today for the final Glasgow Craft Mafia market of 2008. See you in 2009!
I will be at the Cumberland Arms, Byker from 1.30 to 6 pm. There will be 12 designers there, and live music from Beth Jeans Houghton
The event is being organised by the fabulous Karina Hesketh, of Karina’s bags. Be there!
As some of you will know, I have been a longtime supporter and attendee of the Miso Funky craft fairs. In fact, I think Stella My Star has only missed one since April 2006, in October last year, which was due to family illness. I have, I think attended every other one, mostly myself but sometimes sharing a stall with t-boo.
Claire and Jo of Miso Funky worked extremely hard organising these markets and established them locally and beyond as a place to score indie crafts.
At the beginning of last year, DADA approached Claire and Jo with a view to a joint venture. (I was actually there when the approaching happened so I can verify this). As I understand it, and not being part of Miso Funky myself and not wishing to speak for them, DADA organised the venue and publicity, and the Funksters did the stallholder organising part. Throughout the year, Miso Funky continued to organise events, some in conjunction with DADA. At the end of the year, they decided that they wanted to concentrate on crafting rather than organising events. DADA decided to set up their own market. So far so good. Let me make it clear, I am in favour of as many opportunities as possible for small, independent businesses like myself, so I don’t care who organises them. However, I was rather disappointed in this article in the Evening Times.
I take particular issue with this statement:
The idea for a regular Sunday market stemmed from a Christmas market which was a huge success.
I am not sure that either of the assertions made here is true. The idea, surely, came from running markets with Miso Funky for some time, and as a stallholder at the Christmas market, I can say that from a vendor’s point of view, it was not a success and poorly attended.
I suppose it is not to be expected that DADA would give anyone else credit for anything, they are, after all in business to make money and presumably regard anyone not working with them as a potential competitors. However, it is clear that they are all about the money and not about promoting indie craft.