NightQuarter - Night Market Helensvale

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NightQuarter is a vibrant young market which opened on the Gold Coast at the end of 2015. It consists of 2 large hangers and rows of shipping containers. These form the new home to a mix of fashion, food and live entertainment. It's open every Friday and Saturday night from 4 – 10pm. It's similar in concept to the Miami Marketta but has a style all of its own, mixing fashion designers, craftspeople, food vendors and musicians, all within a shipping container bazaar style marketplace.

Food outlets were doing great trade when we visited. Wallets were out in the food area and there was no shortage of food choices. These ranged from steamed dumplings to the Aussie Pie Kitchen, an oyster bar to dutch pancakes, tapas to a good old Australian barbeque - the range of choice was extensive. Food in hand and a drink to go with, then saw people making their way into the Paddock, where we enjoyed the talents of Nicky Convine. on stage during our January visit. The chilled atmosphere of the high ceilinged hanger was a great spot to hang out.

Here's a selection of my favourite stalls. I enjoyed the upcycling, lateral thinking put into the following products. Each took something with a particular use and turned it into something different or marketed their product with a new twist.

First up is Why Mary – with digital printing of original photos of Gold Coast beach sunrises, printed onto fabric, styled into dresses. The colors were beautiful.

I thought the Ottoman House idea of embedding his Turkish cushion cover material into the back panel of denim jackets was clever and colourful.

The old fashioned look of the World Famous Funnel Cake (hot doughnut, waffle & ice cream sundae) stand with the music and dancing serving ladies was fabulous. One young girl stopped to tell her brother: "I want to work there when I'm older, it looks such fun". This was the point that it dawned on me that everything around us was all about innovation and clever marketing. If you want to sell, you need to catch peoples attention.

Da Vinci designer jewellery was another example of a unique product. One of the bracelets and rings we looked at featured Herkimer Diamonds. We were interested to learn the stone came from the Herkimer district in New York, where they are found in the river. The azurite, aquamarine and tanzanite were from Madagascar. The jewellery range was modern, different and all hand set.

Check out the picnic tables at La Lucie Recycled if you visit NightQuarter. They have a unique way of accommodating your wine bottle and glasses. The Small round ones look very portable and stylish. Perfect for picnic in the park events.

There are more wood offerings at Frankly , with log stump stools and chopping boards that caught my attention. Their box shape lights were pretty funky.

The Dichroic Crystal (originally developed for use by NASA) stall had people mesmerised with all the amazing array of colour on display, at a very affordable price.

Last but not least, and my apology to those stalls I haven't mentioned, was the turning of antique spoons into jewellery – particularly the teaspoon rings. That was upcycling at it's best. Those are to be found at Unique Vintage Jewellery .

Congratulations to all the clever people we saw tonight, giving new twists with their creations and marketing with a very professional presentation of their product.

There is an admission fee to pay on entry of $3pp. It's not the norm to pay for market entry on the Gold Coast, but everyone seemed happy enough to dip into their purse at the gate, with the live entertainment being a strong draw card. The NightQuarter website mentions that a portion of your entry is donated to the Starlight Children's Foundation. ATMs are at the entrance and the back of the complex.



Free parking is available in the Westfield Shopping Centre car park. Crowd numbers, walking in and queuing, were impressive considering how young the market is. NightQuater offers a night out, a market shopping experience, variety of food and live music. Overall there is a good vibey atmosphere, offering something for every age group.

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