It’s been a weird-ass year, but one of the silver linings has been watching SA businesses grow and evolve as they find their feet in this new climate. One of those businesses is Gathered, a market supporting local businesses only. With event restrictions still sitting firmly in place for our safety, Gathered have designed to move their entire market experience online. Yep, you read that right.
It’s not an easy jump, from physical market to virtual experience. But when you’ve faced as many challenges as Jenna has, you tend to start taking things in your stride. Created in 2015, Gathered quickly became a place for SA vendors to sell their beautiful handcrafted goods, and for Adeladians to snap up a range of beautiful goodies. You’ll find Gathered three times a year at the Queens Theatre, and once a year in Hahndorf for a festive pop-up.
With great plans to expand in 2019, the first Lobethal Christmas Market was due to start on the same day as the Cuddlee Creek Bushfires. Never one to dilly-dally when help is needed, Jenna turned all her efforts into creating a fundraising component for her February markets, raising over $15,000, which was then donated to the Lobethal CFS and the Native Animal Network of SA.
Just when things were looking up and the April edition of Gathered was right around the corner, ‘rona showed its ugly face. But instead of postponing like so many other events had to in SA, Jenna made the decision to once again take action, and transition to a VIRTUAL Design Market, with dreams of keeping small SA startups afloat during a tricky time.
Now, with two successful Virtual Markets under her belt, Jenna is ready for a new-and-improved Gathered experience this weekend, August 22 and 23. Jump onto the Gathered SA website and be the first to know when the virtual doors open. Featuring an interactive 3D layout with featured videos from each stall, it’ll be just like shopping at a real life market — except, you can be in your pjs and not get any strange looks. Now that’s what we like to hear!
Check out the featured stallholders HERE, with great categories such as Art + Stationary, Clothing + Accessories, Food + Drink, Hire + Garden, Home, Jewellery, Kids, Skincare, and Music. All image credits: Gathered website and Instagram.
