December 3, 2010 3.26 pm This story is over 158 months old

Traders try to break even at fallback Christmas market

Alternative market: Stallholders are pulling together to break even at the first day of the alternative Christmas market

The alternative Christmas market at The Healthy Hub got off to a sunny start, despite traders making losses after the cancellation of the uphill Christmas Market.

Around 35 of the original Christmas Market stallholders are attending the event, selling various items like venison sausages and Christmas tree decorations.

The event on Beaumont Fee only cost traders £50, but most of them are only trying to break even rather than make the profit they could have done uphill.

“This could put us out of business, but there’s a lot of people in the same boat,” said Rachael Reddy, who runs medieval food stall The Giddy Kipper.

Her company travelled all the way from Leeds, selling (non-alcoholic) mulled wine, goulash and venison sausages in medieval dress.

However, both stallholders and organisers at The Healthy Hub are pleased with the response they have seen so far from the local community.

“The community have been supporting us on this,” said Reddy.

“We’ve been out leafleting and talking to traders who have obviously lost business and are glad something is going ahead.

“There are people in Lincoln who have come specifically for the market. We hope people continue to support us here.

“If we can clear an entire car park full of snow in the space of two and a half hours just to get something going then why couldn’t anybody else?

“The spirit’s here for all of us, all working together and we’re very excited about it all. The sun is shining and the snow is going to go.”

The food hall at The Healthy Hub hosts most of the stalls.

Jennifer Hanley helped organise the event and is pleased everything is going well:

“The main reason we wanted to do this was for the economical and social impact it was going to have so we wanted to bring the local community under the same roof.

“It’s going really well, everything is going great so we’re pleased with ourselves. We’re trying to create more spaces [for stallholders], using the car park and we’re getting a lot of donations.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of the people.”

The alternative Christmas market will continue December 4 and 5, Saturday 9am to 9pm and Sunday 9am to 5pm.