This was published 1 year ago
European-style Christmas markets pop-up in Australian cities
By Katherine Scott
Australians used to have to hop on a plane to visit a Christmas market, likely to a quaint village with a UNESCO listing, and almost certainly somewhere in Europe.
More recently, a new wave of European-style Christmas markets and festivals are popping up across Sydney and Melbourne, in part led by government efforts to revitalise central business districts.
This year, Sydney welcomes two festive newcomers – Noël Sydney in the Royal Botanic Garden (December 9-24), part of the state government's Summer in Sydney event series, and the French-European-inspired Le Jolly Market in the Customs House forecourt (December 16-21), a Christmas-themed offshoot of the annual Bastille Festival.
Le Jolly Market came about by accident, according to its French-born founder and director Vincent Hernandez, who says having to postpone the Bastille Festival twice in 2021 due to COVID outbreaks inadvertently pushed the July festival to December.
"We decided to turn it into a special Christmas edition last year and it was very successful. So our exhibitors asked us to bring it back, and we decided to create Le Jolly Market," he says.
"With Bastille Festival [last July] we had about 120 stalls, but for this Christmas we narrowed it down to about 35, and they're some of the best artisan products that we have over the winter."
Among the highlights are artisan European cheeses, terrine, pâté, saucisson and fresh mussels and scallops – all foods "very typical to a French dinner for Christmas night", according to Hernandez.
While visitors can expect plenty of authentic French-European fare and lifestyle products, the night market has also gone to enormous lengths to ensure it lives up to its European counterparts' distinct aesthetic, using the same iconic traditional wood huts as in the northern hemisphere.
"We imported [the huts] from Europe. It was an absolute headache to bring that kind of wood into Australia, but we wanted to recreate that kind of vibe," Hernandez says.
The festival founder says he can't explain the Australian appetite for this most-European of traditions, but he attributes it mostly to cultural nostalgia.
"There's something about the winter Christmas... If you look at the Christmas movies that come from the United States and United Kingdom, like Love Actually, everything is always in winter," he says.
"That's also why we made [Le Jolly] a night market, because having some jazz, some food, being a bit cooler in the evening – it's closer to an experience of going to [a winter Christmas market]... And is there really a season not to like melted cheese?" he says, laughing.
Noël Sydney is leading the roster of free festive events in December, as part of a push by the NSW government, dazzling spectators with a digital Christmas forest, market stalls, food trucks, and live performance artists and entertainers. A Noël Light Trail will rival Vivid Sydney, carving out a whimsical projection-lit pathway along Macquarie Street that starts from Hyde Park Barracks, themed with displays inspired by The Nutcracker.
Melbourne's festive line-up is jam-packed. More than a month of events will culminate in a bumper week of festivities with the Swedish Christmas Market (December 18), Christmas Market at Rippon Lea (December 18), Warrnambool Christmas Market (December 18), and QVM String Bean Alley Christmas Market (December 19).
Toorak's annual Georges Road Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar (November 12 - December 18), put on by the Swedish Church, has grown to become a local highlight, attracting up to 12,000 visitors. The pop-up market features a range of imported Scandinavian trinkets and handicrafts, Christmas decorations, and Swedish culinary specialties ranging from Norwegian pancakes to Danish hotdogs.
The official Christmas Festival, created in partnership with the City of Melbourne under the Victorian government's Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, will reach its crescendo this week following six weeks of festive attractions woven throughout the CBD, including a pop-up Christmas wonderland and Santa's Workshop at Federation Square.
Elsewhere, the Queen Vic Markets will transform String Bean Alley into a Christmas market for one last time for 2022 on Monday, December 19, under a canopy of festoon bulbs, offering unique gifts, Christmas carollers, fake snow and cult street snacks by Dingo Ate My Taco and Pasta Face.
See also: Seven destinations we'd love to receive as a Christmas gift
See also: Why the English eat turkey at Christmas (even though it's not a native bird)
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