As many of you may be aware, we had our honeymoon down in Tasmania over the last week or two. Of course, this explains an absence of blog posts!
Salamanca market was one of the main reasons we decided to go and visit Tasmania. We both love markets, and Salamanca market has an excellent reputation and is a really big market. It started over 30 years ago and has been going strong since.
What we found at Salamanca market was not what we were expecting. It is a massive market with over 300 stallholders selling a range of items from woodwork to jams, to t-shirts and music.
One of the best bits of Salamanca market was the live music. A number of musicians were given time at the market (obviously musicians were rotated through different periods of the day to make it fair). The musicians were fantastic.
The day was stunning, with perfect weather and the market is located right in the heart of Hobart, which meant we could get a really good feel for the whole area. Just be warned – there are more hills in Hobart than you might expect. Parking is not so easy close to the market, so expect a little bit of a walk.
At the market, we bought some delicious local Tasmanian honey, which Matt’s been having quite a bit of lately. We also bought some bulbs from a family farm with a stall at the market. A few different varieties of bulbs will be planted in the garden when ready!
Unfortunately we weren’t overly impressed with the market overall. Perhaps this was down to the high expectations that we had beforehand.
Many of the stallholders were selling the same goods in the same packaging. Clearly many of the stallholders were on-selling from someone else (and making a good profit along the way). Our assumption before visiting, was that the stallholders would be making their own work and selling at the market – and obviously that wasn’t happening at many of the stalls.
One of the elements that can make a market more special is being able to talk the person who grew or made the product that the stall is selling. At Salamanca market, we found that as many stalls were on-selling, this meant that the experience didn’t feel as genuine.
Another surprise was that there were quite a few stallholders looking to sell their stalls in entirety. Several stalls had For Sale signs up, and one even had a sign indicating that their stall position was for sale on Gumtree. There’s no issue with selling stalls, but we would have thought that allowing this might restrict other potential stallholders (perhaps even selling their own goods) at Salamanca market.
Overall it was a good experience to go to such a large and popular market. It’s very popular with tourists, and great for Hobart and Tasmania. Have you been to Salamanca market – and did you enjoy it?
