| Are you one of the many Calgarians who've been enjoying the wonderful Inglewood Night Market? Would you like to know who's behind this unique, creative event? Here's the story of a tiny volunteer-based team that has been working around the clock to build an event that promotes fun, culture, art, local shopping and inner-city vibrancy. It's also a story about a lot of work. This is my call for help! Read on to find out what we have been doing... and to learn how you can help keep the Inglewood Night Market alive.  |  Here's a picture of our team (plus a few poets) back when we were getting started two years ago. |
The Vibrant Village Society of Inglewood & Ramsay
 Our very first meeting at the "Area" in Inglewood | Back in 2012, inspired by the fearless leadership of Inglewood resident Meg Van Rosendaal, a handful of neighbours from the inner-city Calgary communities of Inglewood and Ramsay started the non-profit "Vibrant Village Society of Inglewood & Ramsay," with the mission of bringing fun "pop-up" arts & culture events to our hoods. We called our pop-up series find it. I've written a bit about how it all got started in this blog post - check it out for more details! |
By 2013, with the help of some great community partners and a few amazing arts grants, our team of five or six unpaid volunteers had put together some great events.
The Inglewood Night Markets
 Andy!!! | In 2013, our team came up with the idea of a Night Market. It seemed pretty evident that Calgarians wanted something like this! With a very short time frame, and in the midst of the 2013 flood, our tiny team managed to pull together the necessary permits to close off Inglewood's 10th Street, find a bunch of vendors who were willing to take a chance on us, and promote our event around town. We certainly had a lot of help from neighbours and local businesses. Our amazing event partner Andy of Inglewood's Gravity Cafe loaned us $1000 up front to help us get started. The results were more than we could have imagined. People poured in. Local merchants had record nights. It was fabulous! |
| Now it's 2014 and our second market season is almost finished. Our September market will be the best one yet - DJ Reggie Suave, JUST DANCE on a giant screen, the Chinook Country Line Dancers, pedicabs, food trucks, and... as part of the annual Beakerhead festival, we're hosting El Pulpo Mecanico... an enormous flaming robot octopus. You don't want to miss this!!! (Details on our website, by the way... www.finditcalgary.ca) |  |
Credit for this amazing photo goes to Cat Laine. Click here to see her website.
But what has to happen to make the Night Markets happen? They don't just run themselves.
What We Do
 |  Solita of ReWorks Upcycle Shop does our graphic design and makes our posters! Allison coordinates our volunteers. We're ALL volunteers, of course, but for a big event like the Night Market, we need a few more people to come out and help us get set up. What kind of help do we need, you might ask? |
 Setting up tents: It takes six people to set up this tent! And there are only about six of us on the whole team. That means we need husbands, wives, children, friends and neighbours to come out and lend a hand. (And they do... and they are awesome!) |  |
Stringing up lights: You need lights at a Night Market, and that means someone has to put them up. Here's Meg walking the walk - she doesn't just dream up creative artsy pop-up events, she also does more than her share of the heavy lifting!
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Unloading supplies and putting up signs: We do that too. And this all has to happen on the afternoon of the market. Even if it's raining. So time is of the essence!
 Coordinating vendors: Our vendors arrive on the afternoon of the market, and they appreciate having a team member there to direct them to the right spot, let them know where to park, and provide any other information they need. Our vendor coordinator David not only helps vendors on the spot, he also developed an online process which vendors can use to apply to participate in the market and get signed up. He is amazing! |  And here's Greg, who's our link to the Inglewood BRZ. |
Operating heavy machinery: This is a portable light tower that gets set up at each market to shine some light on the street. It has to be assembled and taken down at each market!!!
Decorating: Banners, chalk drawing, sandwich boards. Even if you're five years old, we'd be happy to have you come out and help us decorate!
Guarding the exits:
10th Street SE is barricaded off, and we make sure there's always someone watching each barricade to make sure no vehicles are trying to get through while the market's happening.
10th Street SE is barricaded off, and we make sure there's always someone watching each barricade to make sure no vehicles are trying to get through while the market's happening.
Manning the information tent: This job is always fun. So many nice folks show up to keep us company at the find it tent. This could be you!
The Perks: We have to take everything down at the end of the night, too. That can be hard work, after a long evening. But last time we did this, a Mexican mariachi band stuck around to play for us while we took down the tents and cleaned up the street! Is there anywhere else in Calgary where you could enjoy something like this? (If there is, please tell me about it!)
So, what can you do?
So, now that you know what we need, I know you'll want to send us a note right away to volunteers@finditcalgary.ca and sign up to come lend a hand on Friday, September 12th. But don't stop there. I hope you might also want to help us make the market happen again in 2015 and beyond. We've had an overwhelmingly positive response to the event - Calgarians love it! And we'd love to keep it going past this year. But this volunteer in particular isn't sure she'll be able to keep this up. With a job and two little kids, I just don't have the time to contribute to our team (and I haven't actually even been doing a whole lot, beyond making the find it website, doing some promotions, and helping on the day of the market).
When we started find it, we were dreaming of doing all sorts of different cool artsy creative events. This summer, we've spent most of our time running the Night Market. We did it, and we loved doing it... but, at least on a volunteer basis, we can't keep doing this forever. Would you like to help? You would? Let us know! Come talk to us at the find it tent on Friday, at what we hope won't be the last Inglewood Night Market. We need you!
When we started find it, we were dreaming of doing all sorts of different cool artsy creative events. This summer, we've spent most of our time running the Night Market. We did it, and we loved doing it... but, at least on a volunteer basis, we can't keep doing this forever. Would you like to help? You would? Let us know! Come talk to us at the find it tent on Friday, at what we hope won't be the last Inglewood Night Market. We need you!
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