The Jesmond Makers Market, which took place on 13th December, brought some much needed escapism to Jesmond and in doing so, donated £1,000 to Connect25 food bank.

The market took place on Fern Avenue at The Pottery Experience but Hazel Stephenson, organiser of Jesmond Makers Market, wanted to “finish the year on a high” and bring a little normality to what’s been a really tough year.

The tightening of restrictions over this period has made it heartbreaking for families, meaning that the local community has played a big part in bringing everyone together.

Stephenson told JesmondLocal that “we found it overwhelming after the market as we had all the sellers telling us that they’d had such a good time, but then there was this outpouring from the people who came”

With the North East now being in Tier 4, the market provided some light relief on the run-up to Christmas. “We had previously been in Tier 3, and this is the first festive thing I’d been to,” said Stephenson. “It feels so good to be in this place where everything is so upbeat.

“We didn’t do the market to make money, we did it to benefit the local makers who hadn’t had a chance to do any stalls. We also did it for us emotionally.”

Tickets were issued with a 30 minute ‘shopping’ slot to control the numbers for social distancing. This money, however, went to food bank, Connect25 in Byker.

“We thought we might as well make some money for someone in the meantime,” said Stephenson. “It’s a local food bank that we quite often support, and we didn’t expect to make that much money for them. We didn’t know how many tickets we’d sell. It was crazy.”

The market was first spoken of in early December, just ten days before it took place.

“We couldn’t plan for it,” said Stephenson. “It was just after they announced we were going to stay in Tier 3, we had a staff meeting and we talked about what we could do for December.”

Stephenson and her team deliberately reached out to small, new sellers to introduce them to the Jesmond community, including The Travelling Bee Company, jewellers Moon and Marie and house plant specialist The Wee Leaf.

Student, Luca Edward was also one of them. It was his first time selling at any market and he took up printmaking in lockdown as a way to keep busy.

“I started creating art as a way to manage my mental health,” he said. “While struggling in lockdown I turned my attention to the city I was unable to go out and experience.

“My mam put a sneaky photo of my prints on Facebook and Hazel spotted it and offered me a place at the market. It was really unexpected and preparing enough prints in time was a bit of a hurry.

“I’d love to do it again if I had the chance.”

Stephenson added: “We do hope we can do it again. We are hoping to be able to do a summer market and we will definitely do a Christmas one next year.”