2026: The Year of Collaboration, Connection and Creativity
The start of the year has been busier than we anticipated and we are really excited for a year filled with our three core objectives : COLLABORATION, CONNECTION and Creativity
With the focus on giving more creatives the opportunity to be a part of our community, with hosting creative workshops at both our markets, Porty Festival, and discovering other creative’s who are passionate about sharing their ideas within our community.
We have started off the year with an exciting last minute pop up at the Shop with No Name, collaborating with Keep Edinburgh Thriving to showcase a great range of our makers and new makers too.
We met such an incredible number of creative people who we are excited to be working with on some fun projects for both Support The Makers and Porty Festival.
Networking is back!
Hosting the first our networking events with Ailish at Seb’s Urban Jungle was a great opportunity for makers within our community to gain some insight into how Ailish has built her brand and launched her company The Edinburgh Growth Co after being made redundant almost a year ago, highlighting the importance of self belief, even when that horrible feeling of imposter syndrome is lurking.
Market Ready Masterclass
Working with Alice from Melt Me Real Good to host our first market ready masterclass was a great success.
Alice and I both shared our experience of hosting and attending markets so this was a really good opportunity for makers to connect with other makers, ask questions that highlight the importance of:
what happens on market day
building on your customer’s experience,
how to set up your table to ensure that you are prepared on the day
Porty Festival 2026
This month sees the launch of the first ticket drop for Porty Festival, with an amazing number of makers within our community involved as workshop hosts offering a range of exciting creative workshops.
With our second ticket drop in March we are really looking forward to year two for the festival - with a wonderful event lineup it’s definitely not too be missed.
Creating Opportunities for Young Makers
We have been really encouraged by the amount of talent from young makers and are delighted to be working with the Portobello Baptist Church to host a Young Makers Market on Saturday 7th March.
We are also looking forward to having a few young makers join us at Porty Festival, giving them the opportunity to buddy up with makers who have a wealth of experience at markets to share their top tips on market day.
We are looking forward to March with a very busy month of markets, market ready masterclass and pop up’s.
We hope to see lots of you joining us and visiting us.
Carmen x
Support The Makers