Soucy Park in Gravelbourg saw a spark of life on Saturday with people enjoying food, live music, and an impressive collection of handmade merchandise. The third annual Secret Garden Vintage and Handmade Market was seen as a huge success among vendors, performers, and patrons alike. The event is put on by the Gravelbourg Artisan Cooperative to give small businesses a chance to showcase their hard work.

“We’re very supportive of artists… everybody helps and supports each other, which is nice as a vendor.”

Resident artist and vice-president of the Gravelbourg Artisan Cooperative Lacey Langlois speaks from both the vendor and organizer perspective.

“It’s very community minded… as someone who has vended for years, we try to organize things the way we would have liked.Things like someone giving you water, or helping you set up your tent.” 

With no more Summer Solstice Festival in Gravelbourg, this event has big shoes to fill, and the organizers seem more than prepared to make that a reality.

“We’re a small group, but we’ve talked about expanding this day to bring in more musicians, more activities, and more multicultural things.”

Anna Smandych, the president of the Gravelbourg Artisan Cooperative is also a seamstress who mainly uses upcycled materials. “Even though we’re not a huge town, we’re kind of a hub…everybody comes here anyways so we can help out the places that don’t have the opportunity to have their own markets.”

The draw is not just from surrounding areas, as Smandych states this event has brought in people from swift current, Moose Jaw, Regina and Saskatoon.  also says that the event is really becoming well known, and that people are already excited for next year.