Markets are to return to Union Terrace Gardens after “many, many years”.
The terrace outside Common Sense Coffee House and Bar in Rosemount Viaduct will come alive with traders on Sunday August 27.
It has proven a popular spot with those out to enjoy the sun in Aberdeen this summer.
Union Terrace Gardens market a ‘showcase’ of refurbished city centre
And now organiser John Wigglesworth hopes a craft market will become a regular draw for the community to make the most of the reimagined space.
This month’s market will be the first since the £30 million refurbishment of the city centre gardens, which finally reopened to the public last December.
Director of Celera, which runs Common Sense, John wants to showcase what the new-look UTG can offer before the last of the summer sun.
And he was “delighted” to reveal his plans to The Press and Journal.
He said: “The team has worked very hard to get this first one to happen before the end of summer at Union Terrace Gardens.
“We can allow visitors to start to see what is possible and will be possible across all the spaces in this wonderful garden and terrace.”
‘We want to make Aberdeen city centre an even more interesting place’
Outside his coffee house, which opened last September, as many as nine stalls will be lined up.
Craft goods expected to be on sale will include packaged food, ceramics and stained glass, wooden craft items, candles and felting kits.
The event will run from 12pm to 4pm, with space yet for more traders to sign up.
John added that when his became “the first business to put its energy into UTG”, he always envisaged community events and small markets as part of the picture.
He believes these will “let people see the work that many businesses and organisations are doing to make our city centre an even more interesting place”.
The businessman added: “This event will be relaxed, open to all and a very simple, special event as UTG has not hosted a market in many, many years.
“Come down have a nosy, get some drinks and explore the garden.”
Common Sense keen on community events in Union Terrace Gardens
The market is not the first community event John has run to draw people back to Union Terrace Gardens after its prolonged overhaul.
In May, he and artist Nicola Atkinson organised a give-away of pieces of her Memory Tree sculpture down at the other end of the park.
Earlier this week, west end bar SugarBird Wines announced they had taken just weeks to hit their £100,000 crowdfunding target to do up their new premises: the Burns pavilion at Union Terrace Gardens.
Hoping to open in November, it will be the last of the commercial premises built in the park’s refurb to be occupied.
The Our Union Street coalition took on the Union Street pavilion in June on the basis they would vacate if a tenant emerged to pay full rates.
Common Sense Coffee House and Bar opened last September while work in UTG below rolled on.
Space for stalls on August 27 can be booked by emailing info@common-sense.co.uk.
