Market DayCollective

Before you commit to anything

What running an event actually takes

Everything a market day needs somebody to own, split into fourteen departments so it can be handed out rather than carried by one person. If you are running a small day on your own, read it as a checklist instead and work out honestly which parts you can do.

An unassigned department is not a small risk. It is the thing that gets discovered on the morning.

Six rules that decide whether it runs smoothly

Assign every department

Including the ones nobody wants. A named person who is overloaded is a problem you can see. An unnamed department is one you cannot.

Name a backup for each

People get sick. A department with one name and no second is one phone call away from a gap.

The lead should not run a department

If the day is big enough to have a team, the lead needs their hands free to decide things and unblock people. On a small day this is unavoidable, and that is fine. Just know it.

Split money from accounts if you can

They sit together because on most days one person does both. With two people, split the approving from the recording, so nobody signs off their own spending.

Put every phone number on one printed sheet

Carried by everyone. Not in a group chat nobody can scroll on a busy morning.

Escalate early

Every department should know who they take a problem to, and that the answer is never "wait until pack down".

The fourteen departments

Each one is a real job with a before, a during and an after. On a small day one person holds several of them. The point is that every line still has a name against it.

1. Lead organiser

Decides, and keeps everybody else unblocked

  • Owns the date, the venue and the go or no go
  • Appoints every other department and a named backup for each
  • Approves the stall fee and the attendee prices before anything is published
  • Names the weather or cancellation decision point: the day, the time, and how everyone is told
  • Settles anything two departments disagree about, quickly

2. Money and accounts

Decides what is spent, and records what happened

  • Builds the budget from every cost group, including the ones people forget
  • Holds the contingency as a percentage, never a fixed figure
  • Sets the stall fee from the real arithmetic, not from what feels reasonable
  • Decides the float and the refund reserve before any money arrives
  • Issues a numbered receipt for every payment taken, and files every invoice, certificate, permit and agreement where a second person can find it
  • Counts the gate takings with a second person, never alone

3. Marketing, communications and print

Getting people there, keeping everybody told, and everything that gets printed

  • Runs the interest page first, before anything is sized or costed
  • Owns every print job: posters, flyers, banners, A-frames, bunting, directional signs, site maps, stall number cards, lapel badges, volunteer name tags, car dash passes, ticket stock, paper fallback sheets and the printed contact sheet
  • Treats print lead times as deadlines that belong to somebody else, because they cannot be compressed on the morning
  • Proofs everything before it goes to the printer, including the codes, which nobody else will check
  • Says plainly what is already printed and will now not match, when the date or the details change

4. Software, IT and day management

Codes, devices, the network, and keeping the day to time

  • Sets the market day up: pages, tickets, food, creche, stalls, prices
  • Generates every code the day runs on and hands the artwork to print in time
  • Tests the whole chain end to end, on a device that is not theirs, before the day
  • Sorts connectivity, and specifies the paper fallback for every scanning point
  • Writes the run sheet: access, bump in, opening, meal service, last call, pack down
  • The one department where a problem at 10am stops four others working, so the backup has to have actually done it

5. Venue

Everything to do with the building and the ground

  • Walks and assesses every candidate venue against the checklist
  • Books it, reads the hire conditions, and agrees them in writing
  • Confirms access times, keys, setup the day before and takedown after
  • Confirms whose insurance covers the event and what they require from stallholders
  • Agrees what state it has to be left in, and who does the clean

6. Parking and traffic

Where every car goes, and how it gets out again

  • Zones the carpark by departure time, not arrival time, so nobody is blocked in by a car that leaves later than they do
  • Sets aside an accessible zone near the entrance and a drop off bay, and keeps that bay clear all day
  • Plans vendor vehicle access for bump in and again for load out
  • Rosters marshals for the whole day, not just the first hour
  • Underestimated at every market day, and the cause of most of the bad tempers

7. Stalls and sellers

Every seller, from application to thank you

  • Opens applications, then accepts and declines promptly, because silence loses sellers
  • Allocates stall numbers, sizes and positions, and publishes the map
  • Collects a public liability certificate from every seller, expiring after the event date
  • Collects the food answers from food sellers
  • Sends the seller pack: number, size, what is provided, bump in time, parking, fee, rules, and the wet weather answer

8. Logistics and site

Getting everything there, laid out, and away again

  • The floor plan, the aisles, the fire exits and the walkways
  • Trestles, marquees, weights, power leads and lead covers
  • Bump in and bump out order, and who is standing where while it happens
  • Bins, water, and everything that is nobody's job until the morning

9. Volunteers and rosters

Enough people, in the right places, told what to do

  • Works out how many are actually needed, shift by shift
  • Recruits, rosters and confirms, and has a name against every slot
  • Briefs them, feeds them, and thanks them
  • Handles the working with children requirements where the creche is concerned

10. Food and kitchens

Anything cooked, served or sold to eat

  • Decides whether the kitchen is a volunteer kitchen or its own stall, because that decides the money
  • Costs the menu per serving against the real overheads
  • Handles food safety, notification and the conditions the venue puts on it
  • Runs the ordering, the cut off and the service

11. Creche and kids

The children, and the room they are in

  • One way in, no through traffic, and a door that shuts
  • Ratios, sign in and sign out, and who is allowed to collect
  • Working with children checks for everybody in the room
  • What gets deleted afterwards, starting with the photographs

12. Safety and compliance

The paperwork, and the things that must not go wrong

  • Public liability for the event, and the certificates from every seller
  • Council permits, food notifications and anything the venue requires
  • Emergency exits, the evacuation plan, extinguishers and a named warden
  • First aid, and where the kit and the defibrillator are
  • Where a BBQ or a naked flame may and may not go

13. Tickets and attendees

Getting people in, and knowing how many are inside

  • Prices, bundles, the creche pass, and what each one includes
  • The gate, the queue, and the walk up who has no phone
  • The live count against the venue's approved capacity
  • Refunds, and who is allowed to give one

14. Pack down and close

The last two hours, and the week after

  • The order things come down in, and who is still there to do it
  • The clean, the bins, the lost property and the bond
  • Reconciling the money, settling the kitchens and paying what is owed
  • The debrief within a week, the thank yous within 48 hours, and the note that carries into next year

If you are a team of four, not fourteen

Group them rather than dropping them. A workable set of four:

  • One. Lead, Venue and Safety.
  • Two. Money and accounts, Tickets, and Software and IT.
  • Three. Stalls, Marketing and print, and Volunteers.
  • Four. Logistics, Parking and Pack down, because those three are all about moving things and people around the site.

Food and Creche go to whoever is actually running them, because neither can be held by somebody who is not there.

The general list: what has to exist before the doors open

Signed, paid or lodged

  • A hire agreement you have read, with the access times in it
  • The venue deposit and the bond
  • Public liability for the event
  • A public liability certificate from every seller, expiring after the date
  • Council permits, and food notifications where they apply
  • Working with children checks for the creche
  • A payment provider that is actually verified for payouts

Worked out on paper

  • The budget, with a contingency held as a percentage
  • The stall fee, from the real arithmetic
  • The ticket price, and what a bundle includes
  • The floor plan, and the square metres it needs
  • The cashflow, and the date it is deepest underwater
  • The wet weather answer, which is whatever the venue said

Printed and in a box

  • Posters, flyers and the A-frames
  • Directional signs and the site map
  • Stall number cards and seller badges
  • Volunteer name tags and role cards
  • Car dash passes, and a pad of blanks for the gate
  • Paper fallback sheets for every scanning point
  • One printed contact sheet, carried by everyone

People, with names against them

  • Somebody at the gate from before it opens
  • Marshals in the carpark for the whole day
  • A roving fixer for anything that will not scan
  • A named warden, and somebody who holds the first aid kit
  • Two people to count the gate takings
  • Enough of them still there at pack down, which is where it usually falls over

Every one of these has a place in the system, so you are ticking things off rather than remembering them.

Start a market day What you would be responsible for