Sydney Artisans

The difference between a one-day market and a weekend one is not just twice the trading hours. It changes who bothers to exhibit. Sydney Artisans runs 10am to 3pm across both the Saturday and the Sunday, up to four weekends a year, and that format pulls in makers from outside the city who would never justify the drive for a five hour Sunday.

Fifty-odd makers, two days, one hall

The floor runs to 50 or 60 stalls and more, all handmade: ceramics, textiles, leather, jewellery, timber, candles, prints, skincare and food producers. Because it is indoors at the Portuguese club, the market is unaffected by the weather in a way that Sydney's outdoor craft markets never are, and because it runs two days, you can come back on the Sunday for the thing you thought about on Saturday. That sounds minor. In practice it is the reason a lot of the bigger purchases here happen at all.

The venue has a longer history than the market does. The Sydney Portugal Community Club was formed on 6 February 1965, growing out of a Portuguese football club started four years earlier, and moved onto the Fraser Park site in the early 1990s. The grounds run to about four hectares, which is why a market with sixty stalls, a bar, a kitchen and parking for eighty cars fits on one block in the inner west without anybody having to queue on the footpath.

Good to know before you go

Check the dates before you plan around it, because four weekends a year is easy to miss. Entry is free. Getting there is unusually painless for the inner west: Sydenham Station is a four minute walk, and if you drive there is free parking for more than 80 cars on site rather than the usual circling of Marrickville Road. Saturday is the busier of the two days, so come Sunday if you want to talk to makers properly and Saturday if you want the fullest stock. Bring cash as backup but most stalls take cards. This is Gadigal and Wangal country.