Winter Village, Hackney

Winter Village comes to Hackney Central from Friday 5th December to Sunday 7th December 2014. The new 3-day event will showcase a vast array of creative talent specially curated by City Showcase: Markets, responsible for last year’s seasonal success story, Dalston Christmas Market.

Winter Village, Hackney, will take place in the grounds of St John at Hackney, a church and emerging new music venue in Hackney Central and will offer a vibrant, contemporary alternative to the more traditional ‘German style’ Christmas markets including artisans, artists, fashion and jewellery designers, leather designers, ceramicists, and card makers. The market will also host a live stage featuring emerging new musicians and local choirs as well as high quality food stalls, bar and cafe.

The event, organised in partnership with Hackney Council, is supporting Hackney Winter Night Shelter, a local charity that provides shelter for homeless people during the winter. Winter Village, Hackney follows the organisers’ other event Soho Flea Market, which drew over 18,000 people to Dean Street in June.

The market presents the perfect opportunity for the next generation of designers to showcase their unique products, food and crafts and there will be in excess of 100 designers taking part.

Stallholder participants include local traders, Fee Fee La Fou’s curiosities and typographical printed goods from Lucy Loves This, British designed goods from Cecil Vessey, Catherine Tough, Becky Baur, Eleanor Stuart and Jessica Russell Flint, handmade gold and silver jewellery by Maya Magal, leather accessories by Lost and Found Accessories, women’s fashion with a con-science, raising awareness against the trafficking of humans by Zoe Boomer, London’s history re-cycled by Amelia Parker and Colourful Dove’s bright and colourful tableware for children. Other participants include celebrated ceramicists Reiko Kaneko, Yas-Ming and Takae Mizutani & Sons, Ro Co’s terrariums, planters and florist Larkspur & Lavender and the renowned Hackney Empire. There will also be a wide range of children’s clothing, toys and gift ideas including sustainable and fair trade goods.

The event will feature fabulous street food vendors including: Chef de Poutine, Colonel Tom's Gumbo, Shredded Meat, Vinn Goute, Anna Mae’s Mac n Cheese, What the Dickens! with pop cakes from Couture Surprises and award-winning Cotswold food producer Ross and Ross. Fever-Tree’s Ultimate Cocktail Bar will be serving their festive favourites like the perfect pairing of sloe gin and lemon tonic and hot rum and ginger beer toddy.

Music and entertainment on the live stage has been organised by City Showcase, the year round not-for-profit festival, including performances by up and coming artists and bands including Talk In Code, whose single ‘Make It Happen’ has been a Q Magazine Track Of The Day, Amani, Joe Jury, Tiz McNamara, Collector’s Club, Anima Acapella, Westcombe Brass, Sister Sidney, I Am Harlequin, Jess Morgan, Echotape, New Street Adventure, Kalandra, Jess Thristan, Bronwen Lewis, Tom Figgins, Alexander McKay, Zak Whitefield, Asya Satti and Infecta. The line-up will be augmented by local choirs, Hackney Borough Youth Choir (led by Hackney Music Services), Hackney Voices, The Hackney Empire Community Choir, Rushmore School Choir, St Monica’s Primary School choir, Harrington Hill Primary School and others. Proceedings will be hosted by Yemi Sawyerr, Emma Real-Davies and Debbie O’Hare.

Plus, throughout Winter Village, The Fashion Hub will be hosting ‘The Fashion Hub Experience’, an on-site 12-minute chair massage for weary shoppers.

In addition Spitalfields City Farm charity will be selling Christmas Trees and giving donkey rides and Santa Claus will have his grotto this year in St Augustine’s Tower right in the heart of Hackney.

The Chocolate Factory N16 is celebrating 20 years of Open Studios. For their Christmas event they are pairing up with City Showcase for the second year running and opening their doors over the same weekend as Winter Village.

You can also visit the Brew for Two Café in St John's Churchyard. The café will be opening late during Winter Village and selling delicious home cooked food with a Turkish twist, as well as hot mulled wine and cider.

Hackney Central is home to Hackney Fashion Hub, Hackney Empire, Sutton House and the iconic Broadway Market and has emerged as an important city location to find budding artists, cre-atives and craftspeople.