The Extraordinary Pop Up Market from the tower of St Thomas' Church. Can Market Rasen be a 'Model' Market Town? (photo and tiltshift effect by Push Creativity)
BREAKING NEWS: Mary Portas has commented on this blog post already via Twitter:
Mary Portas commenting on this post on Twitter, 18th May 2012
“Hear ye, hear ye” (as our Town Crier would say) can we thank everyone who helped to make Monday’s Extraordinary Pop Up Market such a huge success. It was fun, colourful, exciting and inspiring, grabbed media attention and showed what Market Rasen can achieve by working together as one BIG community.
Hats off to all our wonderful community groups for interesting stalls; Lindsey Trail & Poachers Harness Club, Wolds Countryside Service, Wolds Walking Festival, Walkers Are Welcome, Rotary and Lions (for sharing expertise), Rase Heritage Society and Station Adoption Group, Rasen Jubilee Committee and Rasen Hub. And to the Town Council for giving the market place and stalls free of charge.
BBC Radio Lincolnshire's William Wright chats to Mr BIG's Sara Scott, as part of their live Drive Time broadcast at the event. BBC Look North also came to our market for a special news report on our bid to be a Portas Pilot town. (photo by Sarah Lamballe as @copycreator during Lincolnshire's first ever Instameet)
Take a bow you awesome stallholders; Smudged (for big posters too), Mill Nursery, Cottage Garden Flower Co, Lincolnshire Tree Services, Blue River Jewellery, Wolds Target Accessories, Style Studio, Dave Jefferson and Rhodes Fitted Kitchens. Talented crafters Voo Dollys, Seb van Breukelen, Carol Parker, Donna Under the Stairs, Chez Moi and Fairtrade Point of Contact.
Incredibly busy from 3pm to 7pm, catching the after school and after work footfall (photo by Push Creativity)
Thanks also to lovely local food businesses who made it so tasty; Country Markets, Sunnyside Up, Ffeisty’s Emporium (for a celebration cake and cup cakes – all gluten free – for our Instagram meet too), Cupcakes by Claire, Jenny’s Jams, Chapman’s Fish Cakes, Oak Tree Farm, Goat Wood Dairy, Gourmet Spice Co, Garnett’s Ice Cream and Crepe Lucette.
Applause for rocking our world to busker Karl Toth and Martyn Gammidge courtesy of Touches at The George – who we thank for hosting our Portas Pilot DVD, business cards and BBQ so well catered by the Rotary Club at short notice.
Blue Boy's busking was good enough to get some little people dancing! (photo by Cross Cat Designs)
A major attraction at the event was the giant Children’s Think Tank, a mock aquarium created in one of our empty shops, the former Square Bar. Filled with 269 fishes and wishes for the future of the town, one created by every child at the town’s primary school, it attracted scores of families to the market straight from school. With a ‘Fish Trail’ sheet also placed in every child’s bag by the school, families were also directed down the high street to find nine fish in local shops, cafes and pubs, with a prize at the end. An amazing 88 children completed the trail on the day.
The Children's Think Tank judges had the difficult task of picking six winning fish: left to right Louise Robinson (Garnetts), Mark Bletcher (Lincolnshire Signs & Solar Control), Sara Scott (MR BIG & brand thing), Paul Fisher (editor of The Market Rasen Mail) and Steve Lambers (Lincolnshire CoOp)
The tank idea came from MR BIG’s Angela Montague (of Push Creativity) and was made possible by: the children and staff of Market Rasen Church of England Primary School (fishes & wishes and trail sheets), Lincolnshire CoOp (use of the building and Think Tank prizes), The White Swan (free squash on the trail), Garnett’s Sweets (Fish Trail prizes) plus Lincolnshire Signs & Solar Control and Green Dolphin (window preparation). High street traders on the Fish Trail were; Priceless, Blue River Jewellery, Indulgence, Market Rasen Pet Centre, The Gift Horse, Rasen DIY and Jossals. MR BIG volunteers were Vidge, Zoe, Alison, Caroline, Rita and David who created this massive art installation. Also big thanks to another high street name, Forget Me Not Florists, for the fun Marshalls’ yellow ribbons.
Thanks also to Beverley Farrow of Touches, whose salon became BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s studio for the afternoon, Darren Lince of The Advocate Arms and Jackie Smith of Beltec (who also made the canopies for the market stalls) for seamless operations and to Sara, Sarah and Kerry Hallsworth for admin. A pat on the back to professional marketers Angela Montague of Push Creativity, Sara Scott of Brand Thing and Sarah of Sarah Lamballe Copywriting for the design, artwork, PR and social media publicity that continues to captured everyone’s imagination.
Lincolnshire's most fabulous Town Crier, Karen Crow, matched the Georgian market square perfectly.
Well done to Angela for successfully pulling off Lincolnshire’s first ever Instameet that saw snappers from as far afield as Grimsby to Rutland joining our official photographer Ashley Taylor in capturing great images of the town (view all Instagram images tagged #PopGoesRasen with this link).
Left to right Ashley Taylor, Angela Montague, Emma Lingard, Sarah Lamballe and Jack Webb at Lincolnshire's first Instameet. Within 48 hours, our 10 Instagram photographers had uploaded 130 images.
Cheers to the few, but hugely valued, BIG Sweep Up volunteers who turned up to clean the Market Place on Sunday and to WLDC for providing bags
Our Sunday BIG tidy up team led by MR BIG's Beverly Farrow (left), showed the market square just needs a little bit of TLC to make it beautiful too!
Thanks also to The Foyer residents, town councillors and volunteers who helped put stalls up and down.
Young people from The Market Rasen Foyer helped take all the stalls down. They told William Wright how much they'd enjoyed it and how they'd love more opportunities to get involved in projects in the town.
Finally thanks of all to the people of Market Rasen for coming out in force to support our first ever MR BIG market. Let’s hope it’s the first of many.
Our beautiful cobbles, used as they were intended to be, by people and market stalls! (photo Push Creativity)
To see more photographs, especially those of the stalls, click here to visit MR BIG’s Instagram Album on Facebook.
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