It’s the first day of July and we are so excited for the month ahead! With lots of fab markets and events coming up, such as The Great British Holiday Market and the month-long Christmas in July market over on Tresstle, there’s plenty of fun to be had! Tea Green is a pop-up platform in Scotland, and they are also running a month-long online extravaganza throughout July.
We therefore thought it high time we spoke to Tea Green about their exciting plans! Check out Pedddle Founder Nicki’s chat with Tea Green founder Joanne MacFadyen, who is a fantastic jeweller as well as an event organiser, below:
Tell us more about Tea Green!
Tea Green are a leading, Scotland-based pop-up events platform. Set up in 2014, the aim has always been to champion Scotland’s wealth of independent creative talent. With many stallholders being remote in Scotland, not everyone is online, and we want to help those indie creatives to be discovered. Our carefully curated online and in-person events ensure that we host unique and eclectic exhibitor edits, offering our visitors the highest quality selection of hand crafted products by artisans across Scotland. We are proud to have hosted hundreds of Scotland’s most talented independent artists and designers in stunning locations around Scotland.
As a jeweller by trade, how did you get into running events?
As mentioned, I’m a jeweller, and since graduating I’ve met so many creative and talented people on a similar path to me, working hard and driven by the same things. I wanted to create a platform of possibilities, so that stallholders and exhibitors can gain exposure, reach new customers, and meet a diverse range of other creative professionals to share their knowledge and build creative networks.
How has the last year impacted Tea Green and your events, and what’s next for 2021?
It’s definitely an uncertain time and everyone is finding it hard to plan. To make it less stressful for us, we decided to make the decision rather than having it made for us. We decided to not run any events for now, but focus on our website, IG Lives and growing our presence online. Hence the Tea Green Marketplace, which officially opened today!
Tea Green Marketplace is a month of events across July – there’s different things going on on different days. Today, 1st July, is the official launch date, and then over the next few weekends we have different themed things happening, in groups of stallholder type. There’s 106 makers taking part over the month, with events running via Facebook and each maker being showcased on social media.
You can search through hashtags and find out what’s going on, or there’s a more static version over on our website, listing all makers taking part. It’s great fun, especially if the weather is bad! Give us a follow over on Instagram (@teagreenevents) to find out what’s on and when.
We also have an ‘indie spotlight’, showcasing independent businesses and creatives across Scotland. We get out and about in those remote areas and try and give everyone an opportunity, even if they don’t usually go ‘online’. Shops are just as important as local markets and online events, so we want to make sure they’re highlighted and seen.
At 6pm tonight I’m launching the Tea Green Treasure Hunt. Over 100 people are taking part and hand painting rocks which they’re leaving all over Scotland. Use the hashtag #TeaGreenTreasure to keep up and find them! Take a picture of your rock and tag Tea Green Events (@teagreenevents), and you can win a load of goodies from our makers. The rocks themselves are beautifully hand painted and make a lovely keepsake in themselves, but it’s also a great chance to win a fantastic prize!
Also at 6pm today we’re launching a space on the website where directory members can list a product exactly as they want, so makers can get direct sales. It’s open to sample sales and seconds, so makers can post things to sell as they wish. I’m going to create curated Tea Green collections at some point too – it’s basically a website space that will be flexible and evolve over time – I have so many ideas! Watch this space.
Who’s taking part in Tea Green Marketplace and who should we watch out for?
We’d be here all day if I listed everyone, but I’m based in Dundee and surrounded by lots of fantastic Dundee-based artists and makers, who have all been so supportive with Tea Green and fellow makers.
Clod and Pebble have really helped me, as have Agate and Ayre. Beth Lamont is a fellow jeweller and Scarlett Erskine Jewellery – they’ve both been great. Steph Liddle has supported me from the beginning. I love people with an instantly recognisable look and brand, such as Jennifer Lemon, who is Glasgow-based and a Pedddle member too.
What do see for the future of online and offline events?
We’ve had to expand online and I’ve expanded our directory of makers even more since pushing the online stuff. IG Lives have really helped too, to get the know makers and chat about ‘behind the scenes’ things.
For me at least, even when we’re back doing physical events I’ll be keeping online events too – there’s definitely scope for both of them to run alongside each other and create a hybrid market – people can do IG Lives from their stalls etc. People can’t always come to an in-person market -whether they’re working at weekends, aren’t able to leave the house etc, online events make markets accessible to everyone.
I’d like to do bigger online events in future and this month-long July marketplace event definitely has scope to become a physical month-long event next year, as well as having the online aspect. Hopefully by next year we’ll be back running events in person as normal, so we can make it bigger and better than ever.
What’s to come for Tea Green in 2022 and beyond?
I don’t know what the festive events hold this year, but we’ll definitely try our best however we are able to, depending on Covid restrictions.
Kibble Palace in Glasgow is the most beautiful venue we’ve ever had, and we can’t wait to get back there. It has Botanical Gardens, and it’s as tropical as you can get in Scotland!
I’d also like to expand the online shop further, and in terms of my own creative practice, I’d love to channel that more into Tea Green and strike that balance better between admin and creativity.
I’m just going to go with the flow, hopefully come out all guns blazing next year, and see what happens!