This very successful market is organised by The Suffolks Traders Association, where selected stallholders are invited to trade for the day. The markets are carefully curated, featuring Arts & Crafts, Designers & Makers, Vintage and Food & Drink. The emphasis is on local and all stallholders are independent. This market runs 5 times a year, where there is an extra Sunday in the month.
I visited on 31st October, Halloween! All the traders made a sterling effort to either dress in fancy dress or to decorate their stalls in ghouls, pumpkins, witches, wizards or skeletons. The weather was very rainy and sunny and rainy again. Wonderfully supported by locals and the atmosphere was fantastic! Visitors sheltered under stalls between downpours. There must have been in the region of 100 stalls.
The atmosphere was wonderfully helped by having a very good busker on site and although the weather forecast predicted heavy rain all day, the market was still considered busy. When the weather is good, it is REALLY busy!
I spoke with Kate and Mark from PlentyPies.co.uk about the positive after-effects of Covid-19 on their business.
Of all the stalls, there was a large proportion of them that were craft stalls. I spoke with Maria of Upcycled by Maria about her business and the Suffolks Market itself.
| Pitch Cost | £60 (more at Xmas) or £110 for street food stalls |
| Contact for Stalls | Myriam at suffolksmarkets@gmail.com |
| Market Day | 5 times a year Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov |
| Market Times | 11.00 – 16.00 (or 17.00 Xmas) |
| Parking | Many town car parks |
| Facilities | Public loos near the top end of Montpellier |
| Added Benefits | Usually, a busker or a sideshow on (like dog show or stallholders dress up, e.g. Halloween) |
This is a thoroughly brilliant event, for stallholders as well as customers! I can’t remember seeing any street signage of where to go but looking at the number of people who were there, finding the venue didn’t seem to be a problem. The key is that there is footfall. Despite the inclement weather, there was a good turnout – a few stalls were no-shows which left some traders having to trade next to empty stalls which was a shame, but every stall was busy. You can tell that from the images because you didn’t have stallholders standing about rather, they were fully occupied with restocking or selling. A phenomenal market for stallholders – if you are local, apply to trade, you won’t regret it! It’s great to see small independent businesses running events for other independents. Brilliant job!
Happy Trading!