Levenshulme Market is running three special festive markets this December in the run-up to Christmas.
As Manchester gears up for the festive season, Levenshulme Market presents a series of Christmas markets which showcase our fiercely independent spirit. These will be markets designed to support small independent businesses who may not be able to afford the outlay needed to trade at the bigger corporate Christmas markets having faced a difficult year but who nonetheless deserve custom.
Supporting small local businesses at Christmas makes for a strong local economy and Levenshulme Market is Manchester’s only social enterprise market which is run by local volunteers and puts its profits back into its neighbourhood.
Christmas Market Mixtapes
Last year, as bringing live music to the market wasn’t possible, we asked Andy Burham to provide us with a mixtape which customers could listen to at the market or at home. It encompassed choice indie cuts and classic Christmas cheese which we also used to encourage people to donate to the Mayor’s homelessness charity. It was such a big hit that this year we’re not only doing it again but stepping things up with three playlists – one for each of our Christmas markets – chosen by a trio of prominent Mancunians.
The first of these is Dave Haslam. Haslam DJ’d over 450 times at the legendary Hacienda in Manchester during the late 1980s and has since DJ’d worldwide. He has also written a number of books, including ‘Art Decades’, a series of mini-books on arts and culture. Signed copies of these books will be available at the market on Saturday 4th December.
We’ll be announcing those involved in the two subsequent mixtapes in the run-up to each market.
Three Minute Portraits
This Christmas sees the return of our popular Three Minute Portraits project. In December 2019 we gathered together a number of local artists and asked them to sketch quick portraits of our customers at £3 per picture. We’ll once again be assembling some great local artists – including Laurie Pink and Lisa Payne (House of Payne) to sketch market customers, children and pets.
Handmade gifts from local independent businesses
Each festive special will feature nearly 50 stalls of handmade, unique Christmas presents, as well as the finest street food, customers can also browse handmade jewellery, knitwear, Christmas wreaths, ceramics, locally produced candles, soaps and skincare, small-batch spirits, an incredible range of artwork and cards and much more – all of it produced by small independent businesses from across the region.
Made in Levy
Among these items customers can also pick up some special Made in Levy items. We’ve worked with some of our local Levenshulme traders to produce a mini-range of festive goods: a winter-scented candle from Last Ember, a Christmas hot sauce from DevilDog Sauces, an ice-cream from Ginger’s Comfort Emporium made with ingredients sourced from a local allotment. All of these are made in Levenshulme by local residents and businesses and will only be available from Levenshulme Market.
Entertainment and games
We have a range of Christmas entertainment lined up for December, including a live performance from a different choir at each of our Christmas markets, including Levenshulme Community Choir and the Manchester University Opera Society. We’ll be joined by Around the Box, a local organisation which will be providing free games, puzzles and challenges for all ages and the Science Buskers, also known as the University of Manchester Physics Outreach Society, who will be on hand to demonstrate the magic of physics via the medium of tricks, illusions and other family fun.
Food and drink
No Christmas market would be complete without food and drink. Customers can look forward to encountering some of the finest street food Manchester has to offer, including Nepalese momos from The Little Yeti, sourdough pizzas from Rise, vegan West African dishes from Gwafuvegan and plenty more. Our final market of the year will even see a centrepiece German Sausage Swing stall.
The Levenshulme Market Bar will also be with us each week, serving up beers, ales, wines and cocktails as well as mulled wine and cider throughout December.
Customers can also pick up some food to take home this Christmas, with cheese, eggs and butter from the always-popular Winter Tarn Dairy, wine on tap sourced directly from small Italian vineyards from Vinobuono, sauce and seasonings from local legend DevilDog Sauces, and pies, sausage rolls and pasties from HMPasties who provide employment to those with criminal convictions, giving them a wage and a stake in their community while also creating award-winning pies which are the ideal winter warmer.
