Subi Night Market

Market Square in Subiaco is not named after the market that fills it on Saturday evenings. The council acquired the former Commonage land in 1922 with a market square in mind, but by then the suburb's markets had already moved elsewhere, and the site spent the next century as parkland instead. The Subi Night Market has brought the original idea back to the same block, one evening a week from September to May.

Forty kitchens and a park

The market is presented by the City of Subiaco through See Subiaco, and the format is a food market first. More than 40 pop-up vendors rotate through the season with everything from Italian arancini to Belgian chocolate strawberries, gourmet eclairs and street food from a long list of cuisines, alongside a Spirit of Little Things gin bar. Artisan stalls sell candles, sustainable fashion and local craft. Entertainment is deliberately unannounced, with jazz, cabaret, opera and accordion turning up unbilled, plus outdoor film screenings on some nights. Seating is Parisian-style tables and picnic space on the grass, and the Meet Your Street program lets neighbourhoods book a communal table together.

The site itself does most of the atmospheric work. Market Square is a neighbourhood park with a central gazebo, terraced lawn, mature trees, a playground, barbecues and public toilets, and it sits directly between Subiaco station and the old Subiaco Oval, which closed in 2017 and is now the first stage of the Subi East redevelopment. Organisers actively ask people to arrive by train, bus, bike or on foot rather than driving, which is unusual advice for a Perth market and reasonable given the station is at the edge of the grass.

Good to know before you go

The season is the thing to get right. The market runs Saturdays only, from around September through to May, and one Saturday in late October is usually skipped for the UnWined Subiaco event, so check the current date list before a long trip. Doors, so to speak, are 5pm to 9pm, and the middle of that window is busiest. Dogs are welcome on a leash. Come with layers for a spring or autumn evening, take the train if you can, and bring an appetite rather than a shopping list, since the stall mix leans much harder towards dinner than towards produce.