Joburg market rated 7th best in the world

Joburg’s Victoria Yards has been ranked the seventh highest flea market in the world, having received five-star reviews on TripAdvisor.

This is according to Merchant Machine who analysed publicly available review data from TripAdvisor and ranked listings tagged “farmers market” or “street and flea market” by their percentage of five-star reviews.

“The ranking has benefited Victoria Yards as a whole and we are really enamoured with the added international recognition that comes with the high ranking,” Victoria Yards lead developer Brian Green told The Citizen.

“The tenants at Victoria Yards have worked hard to highlight the various artists and artisans and to put them in the spotlight.”

Markets that were ranked equally on the percentage of five star visitor reviews were separated according to which had the higher number of reviews.

Only markets with at least 25 reviews were considered, data was collected in December 2023.

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First Sunday Market

Known as First Sunday Market at Victoria Yards, the flea market is a vibrant and eclectic destination for discovering unique and handmade goods, where patrons have a ubiquity of choice of creations made by local artisans.

“From the humble start of perhaps 10 to 15 stalls, we now have more than 40 vendors who sell a variety of goods, such as handmade items, vintage items and various food offerings from freshly baked goods to pickled goods,” said Green.

The first market took place in 2016 and there are currently 53 tenants at Victoria Yards.

“What really makes the market is not just the 40 vendors, it’s the whole Open Studios experience where the tour guides take people into the respective artisan studios, they meet the maker – we give a lot of depth and colour,” said Lise Kuhle. Kuhle heads up the tenants’ committee at Victoria Yards.

“…it’s not just a market per se, the permanent tenants really make it,” averred Kuhle who occupies space at Victoria Yards through her business ‘Shwe’.

Despite this high-rank, Green wants to maintain the market’s strategy of hosting it once a month, resisting temptation to raise its frequency.

“We do not want to water down the experience and we feel that too much, too often would not create the anticipation we strive to create in advance of each First Sunday.”

The Victoria Yards building was erected in 1910 and remains intact. The market takes place specifically on Sunday because the small businesses are usually busy midweek.

“We all (tenants) make an effort to be open so we can engage with people and show people what we do, when people leave they really feel like they’ve had a cultural experience, being able to buy South African products and really engage with the maker of the products,” said Kuhle.

“We also love dogs and have gorgeous gardens…people can bring their dogs on an outing.”

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Other markets

Africa’s highest-rated markets are clustered in Mzansi, which is home to 12 of the continent’s top 20.

Pretoria’s Market @The Sheds is the second highest-rated in Africa and Egypt’s Street of the Tentmakers (Sharia Khayamiya) trails South Africa’s two top markets.

Some 86.2% of visitors gave Sharia Khayamiya five stars.

It is also one of the most unique in the study, populated by artisans who make colourful fabrics for the ceremonial tents used at wakes, weddings and other celebrations.

These fabrics are affordable and high quality. You can buy them in various forms, including bed linens and tapestries. Or you can bring your own ideas.

“My store-bought reusable shopping bags are always falling apart,” says one reviewer, “so I decided to go to street of the Tentmaker’s, near ban Zuweiha and see if I could get some custom-made. I found the canvas and then someone to make them up according to specification, and they were able to make me eight within 24 hours.”

The US’s Provo Farmers Market in Utah, is the highest ranked market in the world with Victoria Yards coming in at seventh.

Other countries that feature in the Top 10 include Georgia’s Bazari Orbeliani, which came second and Poland’s Gdanski Bazar Natury that came fourth.

In the US, farmers markets alone are a billion-dollar industry, while state-of-the-art markets continue to be designed to foster community and support local trade.

There are five markets from the US in the Top 10 and there’s a surprising paucity of markets from the United Kingdom. Only the Republic of Ireland’s Rathcormac Artisan Food and Craft Market sneaked in at number nine.

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