Upcoming Indie Shopping Events Around North America + Add Your Event Today to our Free Indie Arts Events Listing

Tis the season for church bazaars and craft fairs and, thankfully, fortunately, increasingly, for indie and handmade art access of all kinds. A few events are being planned for the coming months that sound a bit extra interesting, hence the blog post:

[Editor's Note - You can now add your own indie art events to our event listings, use the form at:
Indyish.com/events]

First there’s a little one this weekend at the Whole Foods in New Orleans that sounds sweet enough to eat, plus you could meet Miss Malaprop!:

If you’re in New Orleans, be sure to come check out the holiday arts market & green fair at the Whole Foods on Magazine Street this Sunday, December 14. I’ll be there from noon til 5pm along with some of my other New Orleans Craft Mafia members. There will also be people from some of the local green non-profit groups, plus beer & wine tastings and a green gift wrapping station. Don’t miss it!

Then there’s Unique Los Angeles, with great indie designers featured and proceeds raised for a really important organization called CREATE NOW:

The event will host more than 165 designers from cities including Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Portland. Shoppers can also get their craft on at the Etsy DIY lab, where they can create holiday cards and gift tags, or relax with a beer in the LA Weekly lounge.

From baby items to stationery, this is a chance to buy one-of-a-kind, from-the-heart gifts for everyone on your shopping list — without setting foot in a mall.

What: Unique Los Angeles
Who: Indie wares including T-shirts from Johnny Cupcakes, stationery from Rock Paper Scissors, candles from Illume…and hundreds more.
Where: 110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90079
When: December 13 and 14, 11:00AM – 7:00 PM
How Much: $5 admission–with half of the proceeds benefiting CREATE NOW, a local charity that provides arts involvement for at-risk youth

Then after the holidays for some of us, January 9th in St Louis Missouri, in the event room of a local brewery, indie musicians with swag to share are invited to come out and swap:

Starting at 7 p.m., the room will host a “Local Indie Rock Swag Swap Meet.” In other words, were you in a now-defunct band that never sold its back-stock of CDs? Are they gathering dust in your basement? Do you have old T-shirts, or ‘zines yellowing at the edges and creating a fire hazard in your house? Do you have old T-shirts, or ‘zines yellowing at the edges and creating a fire hazard in your house? (…) Info about this from Chris King’s blog here.

Afterward, the musical entertainment for the evening commences: James Will and the Delusions of South Grandeur, the new project of Museum Mutters/Julia Sets/et al James Weber, a reunion of ’90s cracked-out popsters the Lettuceheads and Last to Show, First to Go. DJ entertainment will be from King and Thomas Crone playing old-skool cassettes.

On January 19th and 20th in NYC you can check out a more skate-street-beach-flavoured indie designer show:

Cargo, the independent fashion trade show and shopping event, is back for its 2nd installment. (…) Open to the general public, apparel, footwear and accessories brands will now be able to sell wholesale to retailers as well as have the opportunity to sell discounted inventory directly to consumers.

Lastly, if you’re an indie booklover, look into this project KidsHeartAuthors, planned for Valentines Day 2009. With a lot of online collaboration it sounds like this is becoming a really exciting idea, bringing authors and illustrators of childrens books to independent bookstores all over the North-Eastern United States, and potentially beyond, to hang out with kids and parents and share the love of lit:

Bundle up your brood and head to your community bookstore on Saturday, February 14th, where local authors and illustrators will gather from 10 to 12 a.m. to sign books for kids and teens.

Bookstores will provide bunches of books, and authors and illustrators will personalize them and answer any and all questions about writing and drawing.

Any other special, indie-lovin events you think we should know about?
Email me: risa{AT}indyish.com!