[Photo by Pinch]
The Union Square Holiday Market kicks off the (holiday) season on Thursday morning.
Here's the official blurbage via the Urbanspace website:
Hailed as a must-visit destination for unique gifts created by local craftsmen and artists, millions of people browse the winding aisles each year enjoying this unique and eclectic holiday experience
Now with an upgraded look, exciting new sections like Little Brooklyn and Urbanspace Provisions, a Warming Station and Lounge Presented by Citi, a Kid’s Arts Studio by our partners at CMA and Citi, live music, and the best vendor selection in the Northeast, Union Square Holiday Market is the holiday destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike.
The hours are:
Nov. 21 – Dec. 24
Monday – Friday: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
This link has a map with a list of all the 2019 vendors.
Like everything else, this was good when it started but has morphed into something else. In the beginning, local independent artists and craftspeople could afford to man a booth and I loved being able to find unique handmade items as gifts. Now it's over $20k to buy in.
ReplyDeleteI also have a problem giving our public park space over to for-profit enterprises, but that's another issue.
Its not really clear what these markets pay for other than the market itself, while we lose our parks for 2-3 months. Do we really need to lose out parks for trinkets?
ReplyDeleteThis thing opens earlier every year. For many years it opened the day after Thanksgiving, last year it opened early in the week of Thanksgiving, now it's the week before. And now it's also corporate-branded to high heaven. Who wants to bet that there will come a day when it will be year-round, under the guise of providing an opportunity for rubes and tourists to buy seasonal overpriced tchotchkes?
ReplyDeleteThere are few things as enraging as this yearly monstrosity. Sure, take one of the most densely populated train hubs, possibly the busiest in all of downtown Manhattan, and build what is basically a narrow plywood maze over its most trafficked corner. For a month. All for a bunch of utter and complete crap.
ReplyDeleteEven back when it housed ~aRTiSAns~ selling crap you "couldn't find anywhere else"—note that we've experienced this albatross long enough to look upon its earliest days nostalgically, much like Santacon—it was a public nuisance. It displaces regulars in the park, it destroys traffic flow, it is a great big pile of stupid, and I cannot wait for the day that people come to their senses and demand that we end this.
tourist trap
ReplyDelete"Little Brooklyn"
ReplyDelete...groan
You really can just copy & paste the comments year after year when Grieve posts about the Holiday Market opening. It's laughable.
ReplyDelete@9:27 - agreed.
ReplyDeleteLook what's happened to Bryant Park - even worse. It's just a matter of time before Washington Square and Battery Park succumb to the same fate.
For someone whom has worked at the Union Square Holiday Market for several years, I rely on this as additional income for my family. I freelance in the creative arts and this gig truly helps with buying gifts and paying for bills. I have worked for a few good people each season who are selling artisan goods. It is festive place with decent people making a living for a short period of time. It's not harming anyone nor is it a blight on the neighborhood as many on here would suggest. Many cities around the world have similar markets. It's a nice departure from chains and name brands. I am tired of reading the comments from those whom bemoan the market and what a "monstrosity," it is. I thought it was important to share a different point of view rather than gripe and complain and harken back to the good ole days. Happy Holidays! See you the market :)
ReplyDelete1:29, the complaints are the same very year because the rat maze reappears every year like a yuletide fungus. Are we expected to suddenly become OK with this plywood deathtrap for no reason? Especially now that the MONSTROSITY has spread out farther and been upscaled/corporatized? On the bright side, at least this year the structure doesn't look stapled together/about to collapse and may actually be made from recyclable materials, I guess?
ReplyDeleteHonestly the fact that people prefer inconvenient tchotchke-peddler rat mazes to Hare Krishnas and chess dudes and pothead skaters is everything that is wrong with New York City today!!! /yelling at cloud, but true nonetheless
It looks like the Grinch woke up early this year LOL. The south end of Union Square is much more festive in the winter with the holiday market, where you can eat and window-shop and roam around for hours throughout the holiday season. The other 11 months of the year the Hare Krishnas, Chess hustlers, skateboard gangs, breakdancers and Tibetan protesters can have this turf to use as they please. This is a nice break from the usual NYC spectacles.
ReplyDeleteI know a few vendors there, and they make enough money to get them through the rest of the year. As seasonal events go, it beats the hell out of SantaCon (coming to a vomit-drenched curb near you on Saturday, December 14th) and it's easier to avoid than Summer Streets.
So see you all in the great holiday plywood maze. I'll be sipping a nice hot winter-themed marzipan laced drink while eating my freshly made truffle frites with garlic or a delicious fruit crepe.
ugh, same people will run the "food court" and bar and party space at the impending Tech Hub
ReplyDeleteRobert Lederman (ARTISTpres@gmail.com) has a great essay at the Washington Square Park Blog: (which I believe was from last December)
ReplyDeletehttps://washingtonsquarepark.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/the-union-square-holiday-market-and-selling-off-and-shutting-down-our-public-space/
An excerpt: "But you see, the issue is actually the right of the city to sell the public space, and, while the GreenMarket and the artist street vendors work within the public space, the “Holiday Market” takes over the space – which is much more offensive to those of us who like to utilize the public space."