fair – New in Cambridge

Cambridge Home + Garden Show

Cambridge Home + Garden Show returns to the Guildhall over the weekend of 30 – 31 March, bringing inspiration, advice and the best in home and garden design from local businesses to local customers.

Image credit: Cambridge Home + Garden Show

This event is the brainchild of Jennifer Chong, who’s been working in interior design in the city since she moved here eight years ago. Having set up her own interior design project management company, she discovered so many wonderful local businesses, mostly independents. Realising that there was no regional design fair in East Anglia to showcase all this talent, Jennifer decided to make it happen and held a very successful one day fair at the Guildhall in September 2017.

This year’s Show features a huge range of exhibitors from furniture makers to fabric suppliers and products from flooring to futons. You’ll find new and established businesses of all types and for all budgets. Most are independents ….. any non-indies must show Jennifer that they have a passion for their product or service and offer beautifully made goods as well as excellent customer service.

Cambridge Home + Garden Show — Image credit: Richard Etteridge Photography

A programme of drop in talks held throughout the weekend features creatives speaking about their journeys and businesses and covers a multitude of topics from smart home technology to garden design to clearing clutter.

A new feature for this year’s Show is a programme of workshops which include “Creating a Colour Wheel” and “Lampshade Making”. There are limited spaces so pre-book your workshop place through the website (details at the end of this post).

Novi at Cambridge Home + Garden Show — Image credit: Richard Etteridge Photography

Event sponsor Novi will be running a pop up cafe offering hot and cold drinks, snacks and cakes. Main sponsor Cambridge Classics will be creating a living room set on the main stage to showcase their bespoke handmade windows, doors, shutters and stained glass alongside flooring and fabrics from Art of Flooring and The Cambridge Fabric Company.

If you’d like personalised guidance with your home or garden project, there’s the opportunity to meet with a local design professional for a free 30 minute consultation at the Show. Simply submit your design query via the website in advance and you’ll be contacted to arrange a consultation.

Entry to the Cambridge Home + Garden Show is free. You can just come along to the Guildhall on the day or you can pre-register on the website where you’ll also find the full exhibitor listing as well as details of the talks and workshops programme.

http://www.camhomeshow.com

Coming up in Cambridge …..

Cambridge International Jazz Festival runs from 13 – 27 November, bringing together the many strands of the city’s strong jazz scene and welcoming national and international jazz acts too. With a crammed schedule of vibrant live music at locations across Cambridge and celebrating a wide variety of jazz styles, the programme includes workshops (if you want to learn how to Lindy Hop, now’s your chance!), talks, films, family events and free entry fringe events. For full programme details and tickets, check out the Festival website www.cambridgejazzfestival.info

“Buy less, choose well, make it last” is designer Dame Vivienne Westwood’s message. With this mantra ringing in their ears, Cambridge Carbon Footprint brings us the Sustainable Fashion Festival on 17 November at St Barnabas Church on Mill Road, for all Cambridge fashionistas and for anyone who cares about the huge negative impact that fast fashion has on the environment. You’ll find a clothes swap party, a sewing themed textiles repair cafe, an interactive fashion show, sewing skillshares, a styling zone, workshops, talks and pop up sustainable fashion stalls offering new and vintage clothing. Take a look at www.cambridgecarbonfootprint.org for more.

Sustainable Fashion Festival Cambridge — Image: Sustainable Fashion Festival

So it’s that time of year ….. I’m making a list and checking it twice before heading off to Cambridge Made Christmas Fair which is my go to for original Christmas presents. The Fair is running from 29 November to 1 December at St. Andrew’s Street Baptist Church and will showcase the work of forty four designer-makers, artists and craftspeople. You’ll find a huge variety of handmade goodies including ceramics, jewellery, textiles, quilts, botanical toiletries, cards, decorations, toys and homewares. More details on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/927219054144713/

Image credit: Purplespoon Design

This post is part of my “New in Cambridge” column in the November issue of Velvet Magazine. Read more on http://www.velvetmag.co.uk

Mill Road Winter Fair

Mill Road Winter Fair is a colourful and joyous celebration of community. From small beginnings in 2005, it’s become a vibrant fixture in the city’s calendar. Happening this year on Saturday 2 December, it draws local residents as well as visitors from across the country, who come together to celebrate the unique atmosphere and richness of life in this neighbourhood. I met with Marisa Crimlis-Brown, local resident and Winter Fair Committee member, to find out more.

Mill Road Brochure Cover 2 — Image credit: Sam Motherwell

“This Fair is all about different parts of the community coming together and there’s something here for everybody,” Marisa tells me. Cambridge Community Circus will be running circus skills workshops, so if you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at diablo or juggling, now’s your chance. Anglia Ruskin University, who are celebrating 40 years of university status, will be showing a display of local art in its Drama Studio on Covent Garden and will host various activities and venues, including a marquee on Petersfield with craft stalls and live music. You’ll find more local craftspeople in a large marquee outside Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre. The Mosque on Mawson Road will open its doors and Cambridge University Museums will be running children’s activities and story telling sessions.

Brass Band Medium — Image credit: Inez Martina Mihaldinecz

There’s going to be plenty of music along the street too. Cambridge 105 will be broadcasting throughout the day with a live stage featuring local artists. There’ll be buskers, the Cambridge University Brass Band, a barbershop chorus and gospel choirs as well as performances from local contemporary choirs. And you won’t be able to resist dancing in the street alongside performers including the Cambridge Swing Dancers and Arco Iris, our city’s very own community samba band.

CHinese Food medium — Image credit: Inez Martina Mihaldinecz

“Come hungry!” is Marisa’s advice. As well as a wide variety of international cuisines offered by Mill Road’s cafes and restaurants, Gwydir Street car park will be a hub for street food and Thirsty will be running a bar with seating at St Barnabas Church, where you’ll also find food trucks and a reggae stage.

Band medium — Image credit: Inez Martina Mihaldinecz

There’s so much going on at the Fair, much more than I can cover here so for the full programme, do check out their excellent website and also their Facebook page for news and regular updates. Details are at the end of this post.

Lion medium — Image credit: Inez Martina Mihaldinecz

The Winter Fair is organised and run by a small group of residents who always welcome people to the team to help with planning this event. And volunteers make the Fair happen on the day. For this year, they still need road stewards to help keep everyone safe so if you are aged over 18 and would be happy to help, email volunteers@millroadwinterfair.org

Crown medium — Image credit: Inez Martina Mihaldinecz

On 2 December, Mill Road will be closed to cars and bikes from East Road to Coleridge Road. The Fair opens at 10.30am and the organisers estimate that around 15,000 visitors will come to experience the sights, sounds and colours of the day. And there’s no need to leave once the Fair closes at 4.30pm ….. why not stay a little longer and enjoy the shops, cafes and restaurants of this vibrant neighbourhood?

http://www.millroadwinterfair.org

Facebook: Mill Road Winter Fair

Mill Road, Cambridge CB1

Cambridge Made Christmas Fair

So Christmas is coming ….. I’m making a list and checking it twice before I head off to the Cambridge Made Christmas Fair, which for the past couple of years has been my go to at this time of year for local handmade treasures and really original Christmas presents.

The Christmas Fair showcases the multifarious talents of a collective of Cambridge designer-makers who have come together as a team under the Etsy banner. Etsy is the world’s leading online marketplace for handmade goods, through which individual makers can run an online store to sell their wares. But it’s much more than a sales forum. It’s a community minded operation that encourages sellers to form teams, meaning that craftspeople can pool their experience and expertise and support each other in what can sometimes be a solitary existence.

Cambridge Made Green collage — Image credit: Cambridge Made Christmas Fair

I met with Debbie Poyser and Sara Bevan from the Cambridge Etsy team, who firmly believe that people should be able to make things for a living and, indeed, that it’s an essential human impulse to make. They told me that four years ago, their first Fair was a pop up shop in a room above a pub in central Cambridge. The Cambridge BID team then got involved, helped the group to set up a Summer Fair and from there the project went from strength to strength.

This year, the Fair is being held at St Andrew’s Baptist Church and will show the work of forty three designer-makers, artists and craftspeople over three days. There’ll be a huge variety of hand made goodies including ceramics, jewellery, textiles, quilts, botanical toiletries, cards, decorations, toys and homewares. Some new makers will be coming on board each day so it’s definitely worth visiting the Fair more than once. Should you work up a thirst doing all that Christmas shopping and need to recharge, refreshments will be available at Livingstones Cafe in the church. You’ll also be able to help raise funds for Jimmy’s Night Shelter by stopping at the charity table.

Cambridge Made Red collage — Image credit: Cambridge Made Christmas Fair

Cambridge Made welcomes applications from makers who would like to share opportunities and be a part of this supportive group. Just contact them through Facebook at Cambridge Made.

As shopping experiences go, sorting out the Christmas presents often feels like something of a mission but I can promise you that this Fair is different. So make out your list, come along to support local designer-makers and see what treasures you will find.

Facebook: Etsy Made Local – Cambridge

43 St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge CB2 3AR