Following a successful trip around the Sunshine State last year, Gainesville-based night market series the Bazaar Florida Tour is hitting the road again this summer and stopping in Orlando.
The event gathers 50 creators and artisan vendors, visual artists, DJs and cultural placemakers at the Casselberry Arts Center on Saturday. Last year, the event came to Central Florida for the first time and brought 700 attendees. This year is expected to be bigger.
“The goal is to be a platform that everyone can plug into. The big focus is working with people in the community that we’re visiting,” said event producer Laila Fakhoury. “If you create space for everyone to be creative and explore something new, it really creates something super beautiful.”
Inside the 3,000-square-foot Casselberry Arts Center, guests can dance to the sounds of Orlando collective CHKN + BEER showcasing high-energy DJ sets while a digital creative collaboration between P1K music, meechiexx and Jonel brings an interactive audiovisual experience to the space. Thirteen of the artisan and craft vendors will be set up inside the gallery space.
On gallery walls inside and outside, a visual art show comes to life, curated by Central Florida creators Damian Jimenez-Lazarte, Teagan Carregal and Alexis Collum.
The Bazaar Florida Tour stops at the Casselberry Arts Center on Aug. 8, bringing 50 vendors, DJs, workshops and creative connection to the community. (Khary Khalfani/Courtesy Bazaar47)
Workshops focused on crafts, collage, sewing and press-on nails can be found inside the Casselberry Art House along with a DJ booth spinning vinyl records.
Outside in the park between both indoor spaces, guests can explore 35 artisan and craft vendors, five food vendors, a bar, the CITRUSMRKET tent, the “Diaspora” photographic gallery, a community rug demonstration, domino tables, a snail mail club, skate ramps, film screenings, caricatures and more DJs. The outdoor space also showcases Red Bull Dance Your Style, a street dancing competition that’s coming to Tampa for the national final in September.
“To bring diverse communities of people and creatives together to do this special event, it’s cool to see it all happen,” said Justin Luper, the City of Casselberry’s arts and marketing supervisor. “Our mission is to be that third space for our community. For them to be able to travel around and find those people and those entities with similar goals is a cool thing.”
The Bazaar Florida Tour stops at the Casselberry Arts Center on Aug. 8, bringing 50 vendors, DJs, workshops and creative connection to the community. (Khary Khalfani/Courtesy Bazaar47)
The family-friendly event in Central Florida is the first stop on the Bazaar Florida Tour, which will travel to Broward County, Jacksonville, back home to Gainesville and the Gulf Coast before concluding with a December “finale” in Gainesville.
The concept started as a way to give artists a forum for selling their works and bringing the community together during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a few years, the market grew to include more than 100 vendors, food trucks, DJs and thousands of attendees on several closed city blocks in Gainesville.
While the market has a permanent home and venue in Gainesville, Bazaar47, the tour brings the creative spirit of the space to people across Florida.
The Bazaar Florida Tour stops at the Casselberry Arts Center on Aug. 8, bringing 50 vendors, DJs, workshops and creative connection to the community. The flyer for the event was hand-painted by Amayah Novela and designed by Jahi Khalfani. (Courtesy Bazaar47)
“It’s more than just the programming or the infrastructure of the market. It became a platform for all kinds of creatives and artists to plug into, whether as vendors, people leading workshops or DJs. It created this open, welcoming environment,” Fakhoury said. “We wanted to see how we could share that kind of Gainesville energy in a different city. It worked so perfectly.”
Last year, Fakhoury said the Orlando event drew a crowd from all different backgrounds and brought people together to forge lasting connections that inspired new collaborations. She expects even more of that this year.
“We definitely want people to come and enjoy themselves and to know that it’s really an open space,” she said. “It’s for anyone to get to enjoy and there’s probably something for everyone there.”
Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
If you go
Bazaar Orlando is from 6-10 p.m. Aug. 8 at 137 Quail Pond Circle in Casselberry. The event is free to attend; online RSVPs are encouraged by visiting bazaar47.com. Well-behaved dogs are welcome at the event in the outdoor spaces. More information: bazaar47.com or instagram.com/bazaar_47