Market Stalls

Hi Knittin' Kitten

York is brilliant idea for the Christmas market.

I don't know much about the York alternative scene. Just that my friend Teresa Dead who sings in Zeitgeist Zero didn't think much to the sound system at one of the venues they played at and was dismayed that the noise level was reduced because 'neighbours' may not be happy. Think she said something along the lines of farting in a tin can. Lol

Have you thought about Leeds as well as York. There's a big alternative scene and lots of clubs.

Check out http://www.thewendyhouse.org/
and Subculture club (on wade lane is a small live band & burlesque venue)
and the Cockpit (live big name alternative bands and local bands)

They are venues that have stalls usually selling cd's or band merchandise (or have in the past) and are a brilliant night out too. Wendy house is the biggest on the university campus and is run by the student union on the 3rd Saturday of every month. Freshers night there is hillarious. Check out the piccies. This year the theme was pirates arrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Goths are the biggest show offs I know (I'm married to one) so when it comes to accessories you would have plenty of customers especially with fascinators, fans, mini hats, steampunk stuff, victorian style brooches and anything with lace and frills. There's a big cybergoth element too. Check the photos for ideas.

The Goth shops in Leeds have been moved out of the Corn Exchange into the back streets and a lot have closed down so the choices are limited there too. A lot of the local bands sell their merchandise at the venues they are gigging at. The other thing about Leeds is there are lots of cheap places to stay.

See what you think x

Yeah, there's a lot of alternative people in York, but not much that caters to them. There's a weekly night which is pretty good, and a monthly one that I'm going to tonight, but no decent gig venues. I've only found three alternative shops in York and two of them are more emo than anything else, so we're hoping we can get in some steampunks and people like that.

Maybe Leeds, but we were thinking we'd try it out in York first, as it's probably more expensive.

I live in Bradford and all our alternative shops have gone. Even Rio's rock club and the original Wendy House moved to Leeds arrrgh!!!! Me and my hubby go out to Leeds for nights out now. We were going to go to a gig in York but it was a bit far to go cos of his work committments. Poor bloke gets up at 4am and were going to go to see Emilie Autumn tonight in Leeds but he got called in to work arrrgh. He starts a new job on monday with 'normal' hours so may be able to get to York eventually. Lol

You probably will make more money in York because it is more exclusive and it's a beautiful city. Visit the Yorvik centre if you get a chance, we took the kids, but I think we had more fun than they did. Lol x

Mm I've heard the Jorvik centre is crap to be honest =( I want to go to the Dungeons, but I suffer from panic attacks, which are set off by the dark and people jumping out at me. So probably not a good idea!

We're thinking if we do it during Fresher's week there will be new blood there with money that we can sell stuff to. And we're gonna do discount schemes, like 10% off if you're wearing DMs, and stuff like that.

You should let me know when you come to York next, we can go to Evil Eye for a lovely but very expensive drink!

The Dungeons are quite scary and dark.

Think the 10% off for wearing DMs is inspiried. That's all the blue rinse brigade out then. Tee hee. Will let you know IF I manage to get to York. It would be good to get out of Bradford to somewhere more classy.

We usually go to see Zeigeist Zero as they are local to Leeds and do shows in York too. The singer, Teresa is wanting some new stage costumes so I've got a bit of designing and sewing to do. They have a 40's look at the moment so I've got a bit of style homework to do. She's jumps all over the stage too so think I'm going to have to put some hidden elastic panels somewhere. Lol x

Haha nice one =P

The thing that sucks most about York is its lack of live music venues. There's pretty much Duchess, Fibbers and Stereo. I'm from Bristol so I'm used to not HUGE bands, but decent enough, like we get Motorhead at the Colston Hall all the time and stuff. And UK Subs are playing York, but it's while I'm at Download, which sucks. Although I might go see them in Leeds.

Haha yeah well we were thinking about discount schemes, like 10% off with a flyer or whatever, but we were thinking to make it more exclusive...but we're also going to set up a Facebook page, so we could say that friends on Facebook get 20% off between 3 - 5pm on the second day or whatever, just to make sure people are paying attention, you know?

I'll have to look into Zeitgeist Zero =P

Check out Leeds Gothic Society on Facebook too. They have information about stalls and events.

Have you considered doing a stall at Whitby Goth Fest' it's last week in October. The main music events are on at the weekend but there's stuff going on all week. google WGW for more info.

Whitby has lots of stalls within the Metropol Hotel, Rifle Club, Spa Pavillion, Leisure centre and other Hotels have started having stalls available during goth week. So there's loads of scope for selling stuff. It's really ecclectic so anything goes and people spend their days going from one to the other and their nights enjoying the music.

There's also a sight called Infopics that has photo's from the Whitby Goth festivals. http://insights.fotopic.net/

The only problem with that is it would have to be really special stuff at a goth festival. The good thing about York is there isn't anything else like it. We'd just be one of many at Whitby. And I think we're going more punk than goth anyway (for people who are supposed to be anti-consumerism, punks sure do spend a lot on studded jackets and the like.)

Might have a look on the website for inspiration though.

Do you reckon it'd be a good idea to do some market research first? Like set up a Facebook and ask people to answer questions on what they'd like to see sold, etc?

We're also thinking about creative ways to advertise. If we're going for a punk/goth market, we want to find some slightly "rebellious" ways of advertising, but not so rebellious we get arrested or something =P so like we have these all round our SU and in all the toilets in uni:



I was messing around earlier and found that they just snap open and shut - there's no special trick. So we could print off A3 ads and just put them around in all the toilets.

Also, curious to see what you think of the name: we're thinking 'Anti-Skill'?

There are lots of stalls at Whitby and they are so varied. Even the local Oxfam runs a stall. They save all their gothy stuff to get top price for it at that weekend. You can charge £20 to £40 for a small facinator and people will pay it, if it matches their outfit. Lol. Wool hairfalls go for about £20 to £30. Even stuff like syringe shaped pens go for a fiver.

I would use facebook for free advertising. Link a page to other gothic/punk interest groups. Don't use it as a personal one and set up with a different e-mail address so you can keep it seperate from any other account.

Not sure about how best to go about market research. I know if you put words in Google they have a system of working out most popular sites cross referenced with other searches and links so you will get best 'fit' pages in first 20 or so. Most people use one of these pages as a start point. It's a matter of trying alternative combinations of words. Takes time but once your used to it it pays off.

I'd be careful about using the uni toilet boards, although it does sound nicely subversive..........Nar........give it a go....you can always say you didn't know, flutter you eyelids and claim insanity!!!! Lol. By then word will get round and you will be a legend


Anti-Skill.......funny, would make me want to know more

Well they'd only be able to trace the uni boards to us through the Facebook page we'll have on it, but if they had a go we could just say we put up flyers and someone must have put them in there. Chances are they won't care!

Lizzie came up with Anti-Skill, we thought it sounded good because if you put the word "anti" in something it sounds rebellious and alternative =P and it's also kinda suggesting that we're against the higher form of skills, if you get me. Like we can do it because we're so goddamn cool =P

We're gonna link our Facebook page to all the York alternative venue pages, stuff like that. And we're gonna see if we can hand out flyers in those places.

Wool hairfalls might be an idea actually - they're piss easy to make and I know they sell for a fortune. And there isn't actually anywhere in York that sells them. Maybe I could make up a few and see how they sell.

I'd go for the toilet adverts. Makes more interesting reading than the usual stuff on the walls eh?

I've noticed there's a bit of cross over with the cyber stuff. Hairfalls are always popular at Whitby cos most people can't be bothered making them. If only they knew how easy they are. Lol. I like the cyber hairfalls too. I've seen them made with thin plastic strips in a contrasting colour mixed in with the tubing.

Sometimes I'm trad and wear the long coats, hats and victorian boots, sometimes I'm lolita and it's all stripes, bows, lace n flowers and other times I'm more punk with latex, studs and big boots. It's a bugger when I go to Whitby cos I've go soooooo many shoes to think about. My hubby just fills the car with his coats!!!

I made hairfalls before, even just with wool it costs maybe £5 and take like an hour to make. You can make them cyber with tubing and that, or goth with lace. I went to Camden last month and my friend wandered off on his own, came back with some dreadfalls he bought for £30. They were JUST wool. I had to tell him what an idiot he was, for a tenner I would have made him some. And stuff like that, we can put them in our hair while we're selling so people see them displayed properly.

I'm kinda punkish mostly, I like studs and animal print and that. We were thinking about getting some cheap jackets and punking them up, studs etc, cause people pay a lot for them when you can make them fairly easily.

Best place for cheap jackets is the charity shops. I ask my local ones to put damaged stuff aside instead of in the rag bag so I can have a look through it and make a donation. Got some fantastic stuff. My best freebee was a 3/4 length leather coat with a small tear at the bottom of the pocket. It was gonna be thrown out!!! took me 1/2 hour to fix it. Charity shops can't sell stuff thats damaged so get friendly with the old ladies behind the counter, you never know what you will come out with x

Yeah I worked in a charity shop for a day and they threw away anything with a slight hole in it, or any hand-knit stuff (presumably because it hasn't been through safety checks). It's ridiculous! For the very slightly broken stuff, I was trying to explain to them that they could have a section of discounted items that are faulty; more and more people are learning to sew, and it seems such a waste to throw away perfectly good items! I might have to ask around =)