ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Uncommon Market Asheville is one of the city’s biggest arts and antique pop-up markets. It’s hard to predict what you’ll find at one of their events: a spider salesperson and a gigantic garland of bottlecaps are two recent standouts.
This weekend sees the 10th anniversary of the Uncommon Holiday Market, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday, Dec. 8 at the Haywood Park Hotel event space on 46 Haywood St.
Uncommon Holiday Market will be a collection of artists, antique vendors, food trucks and music, all in one space.
“It started out as just an antique show because we’ve been antique dealers for over 30 years,” said Rebecca Nicholas, manager of Uncommon Market. “Then we saw how the art and the handmade all blended together and so it’s an opportunity to give small businesses a place to sell their wares and get found out by the community.”
Of course, the Uncommon Market wouldn’t be uncommon without slightly unusual vendors.
“It’s just people that are going after their own spin on art. They don’t have to do something somebody else does,” Nicholas said. “Even in the antique world, there’s so many different genres of antiques and just going for, you know, whatever brings you happiness.”
Uncommon Market is an opportunity for smaller artists to sell their work after Hurricane Helene interrupted one of the busiest seasons for artisans in Asheville. The market saw a few changes itself because of the storm.
“We normally do a show at the A-B Tech Conference Center, but it was a shelter this year so they needed to dispense with all their events,” Nicholas explained.
Instead, the market shifted to the nearby Haywood Park Hotel.
“We’ll have around 80 vendors. We’ll be full in there,” Nicholas said. “We’ll have coffee, some other drink vendors. We have somebody making an oatmeal cookie vendor. You can also get lunch there at the biergarten.”
To Nicholas, the mission of the Uncommon Holiday Market is clear.
“It’s a great time to support our local community, small businesses that have been hit so hard with Helene,” Nicholas said. “It’s just a fun, festive time. We look forward to it. We thought it was really important to do it this year.”
In advance of this weekend, Uncommon Market is holding a giveaway on their Instagram, with uncommon prizes worth up to $300. Admission to the market itself is totally free.
For more information, visit www.uncommonmarketasheville.com.
For other markets this weekend slightly unusual in nature, try the Krampus Parade and Night Market. Read more about it here.
