The Bantu Market is proudly promoting African culture and its diversity through a shared love of music, dance, market stalls, visual arts and food.
In recent years, the Geelong region has become a market hub of sorts. While we have plenty of top-notch shopping centres, arcades and well-known brands, none of them quite measure up to our fabulous array of thriving local markets.
One we’re particularly excited about is the Bantu Market, Geelong’s very first African Market.
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Originally slated to take place in January this year but cancelled due to the surge in the Omicron variant, Bantu Market will take over the Barwon Valley Activity Centre in Belmont on Saturday, March 26 from 12pm to 6pm, bringing along a wide range of Africa’s finest tastes, style, homewares, exceptional talent and more.
Dubbed ‘the quintessential African experience’, at a glance, you’ll find beautifully African-inspired scented candles and home fragrances designed to help you facilitate your self-care routine from Afreeca Living, scrunchies and headwraps from a brilliant Melbourne business, handmade products preserving Ghanaian (West African) culture from Afro Creative Corner, quirky and colourful handcrafted homewares, fashion accessories and everything in between from Kulture Garage, vibrant aprons from upcycled denim and African fabrics that celebrate culture and bringing joy to your kitchen from Mat Tetni and traditional, modern and customised jewellery from Werkê. Barbers from Clipper House will also be on-site for those that want a fade throughout the day.
You’ll also find the most affordable South African groceries, snacks, meat, beer and beverages in Australia from Inside Africa, and delicious Cape Town doughnuts, Boerwors and Bunny chow for all the Southern African street food fix from Ostrich & the Egg.
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The Afro market’s aim is to bring together the wider community together by creating opportunities for community participation and engagement through celebrating Africa and cultural diversity – and what’s not to love about that.
Alongside the vibrant community made up of small businesses and creative artists who are passionate about their craft, the market will also be celebrating the sounds of Africa with vibrant live music from Ausecuma Beats, a nine-piece band comprising musicians from Mali, Sengal, Guinea, and Cuba. They’ve now congregated in Melbourne, and are creating music that gives tribute to their homelands and histories.
There will also be traditional drum and dancing performances, hair braiding, delicious food trucks, market stalls, games and kids entertainment. We hear bubble soccer is on the cards, courtesy of Fowl Play Games + Events. There will also be drumming workshops for those that want to dive deeper into the culture, The Bebop Circus, complete with an African themed puppet show and the circus show performance and an author’s corner, featuring author, speaker, mentor and passionate advocate for personal development, Katinda Ndola.
The market is located at Barwon Valley Activity Centre (Wadawurrung Country, 1 Barwon heads road, Belmont) on Saturday, March 26 from 12pm to 6pm. It’s $2 Entry and there’s heaps of free parking.
Find out more here.
