A balmy summer evening. It could be a scene out of the “Arabian Nights” or a sultry street festival in South America… — smoky food stalls selling Ethiopian, Dutch, Argentinean, Middle Eastern and vegan fare; stalls advertising tarot readings, even a psychic to tell your future; massages to soothe your tired shopper's feet — appropriately called ‘Sole sisters'; bright Mexican hats and vibrant Peruvian textiles decorating the eclectic stalls, as rainbow-coloured fairy lights lend a soft glow; two stages with buskers providing a lively backdrop to the clutter and chaos.
The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne is a local institution that has been around since 1878. Long ago it was small market; it later acquired the space from the Old Melbourne cemetery, and they say that even today under the sheds and car parks there may be buried souls… Called Queen Vic by locals, it's situated on 17 acres and is said to be the largest open air market in the Southern hemisphere. Almost 1,000 traders sell their goods in open-sided sheds and gargantuan halls five days a week. Many of the market's buildings date to the 19th Century — such as the Meat Hall and a few two-storey shops.
Foodie's heaven
The dairy hall is a foodie's heaven selling delicatessens, poultry, bakeries and confectionaries. For the hungry shopper, there are stalls selling sandwiches, salads, pizzas and sausages.
Melbourne is a melting pot of immigrants, and the Queen Victoria Market showcases the diversity in its myriad stalls. What's unique about the Market is the myriad tours that one can take — such as the Heritage Market Tour that includes morning tea and a multi-cultural tour that emphasises the ethnic variety of the market. The market even has a regular series of cooking school programmes where some of Melbourne's best chefs make dishes out of fresh produce available at the market.
I visit the Suzuki night market that runs between November and February each year and is a Melbourne summer tradition now. Jennifer Hibbs, the CEO of the market, tells me that many people had seen and enjoyed night markets in Asia, and they had wanted a Melbourne interpretation of that market. It has certainly paid off — it won the Tourism Victoria's best festival event award last year. The stalls are very competitive and applications arrive as soon as that year's festival concludes. You have to have a unique selling point to bring out during the interview. This ensures fresh ideas and creative business propositions.
Magical morphing
It's interesting how the day market morphs into the night market — the vegetable stalls are all packed up, and the plastic chairs and tables come out! This is the realm of the weird and the wonderful — funky local designers showcase their creations, buskers play eclectic music ranging from jazz and country to world music. I watch busy chefs at bustling food stalls turn out everything from brilliantly coloured paella and African curries to honey dumplings. For the adventurous lot, there are emu and kangaroo burgers. The market is dotted with bars where you can pick up a glass or bottle of wine or sangria. The Suzuki night market is all about sustainability too — the roof has 1,328 solar panels that cover one third of the roof and reduce its energy needs. There is energy-efficient lighting and water harvesting programmes that make this a very ‘green market'.
The stalls in the night market are unique and attractive. I trawl through a stall that calls itself ‘Wozworth — re-incarnating rubbish', and all its products are made from things such as sweet wrappers and coconut shells. There are stalls offering Indian henna, with rope strung charpoys and bright ethnic curtains. I try the popular Expresso Martini, a mixture of espresso, kahlua and vodka. The carnival atmosphere with people enjoying themselves with friends and family is also a celebration of the multi-cultural nature of this melting pot city.
The stalls showcase the creativity and individuality of local artistes and designers. I see stalls selling notebooks with vinyl LPs as covers, jewellery made from neckties, black-and-white photographs of the city, and multi-hued South American clothes and hats made out of a reed. I am caught up in the sheer drama of vendors stirring huge woks of fragrant food, the cacophony of voices, and the backdrop of the music bands. And, reminded of the tagline of the festival — “where the weird and the wonderful come out at night!”
