The Whale Festival Art and Craft Market recently took place at the Sam Cohen Library open area in Swakopmund as part of the Swakopmund Scientific Society Oceans Month festivities.
Twenty stalls displayed they products at the market, which were mostly handmade crafts. These included embroidery, knitwear, knives, wooden clocks, and jewellery. The platform was well received by the vendors, who welcomed the way it gave them an opportunity to showcase their goods.
One of the local entrepreneurs, Aletta Beukes is the owner of Artsy Bits Creation. Her business sells different types of printed products like T-shirts, key holders, and bookmarks. She expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to display her products at the market.
"I am doing this for the money, but the exposure, putting your product out there, giving out little business cards so that people can see what you are doing is what is good for me. That is what this type of market provides," said Beukes.
Mike Muchingami, who is the proud owner of a clothing business known as Nam Clothing, travelled from Windhoek to be part of the market. "We are getting to meet different people since I came all the from Windhoek. We meet new people which is helping the business bit by bit hopefully in the future," said Muchingami.
Market organizer, Elzane van Heerden said that the event was a platform for blooming small and medium enterprises who specialise in art and crafts to sell and market their products. "It is important for us to provide this platform because small businesses don't have the financial aid to be able to take part in events. Some events are quite expensive although there are always expenses from our side that need to be covered."
"For us to have more of these markets is quite important because we are losing that home touch. We don't just want to go into a shop and buy. We want to come out and support the people behind the product. Since some businesses are left out in the big run, they are asking only 10% of what their product is worth just to make a living. In this way, we can encourage people who make handmade items to work hard for themselves and have the platform to share the items," she said.
The Sam Cohen Library open area is in Swakopmund's main street - Sam Nujoma Avenue. The open area is known for its historic presence. In the area are old skeletons of whales that came to shore and parts of old train stations.
Van Heerden further said that more markets will be taking place at the Sam Cohen Library open area in future. "What we are trying to achieve for this specific venue, is that we are looking for frequent markets every second or every third month.
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"This is a beautiful venue, and everything is put up so well. We have lovely history here and I think so many people don't know about the history of the museum and of the library and what is happening. I would like to encourage people to come out and view this venue and see what they are missing because it is a bit hidden. People don't see what is here," she said.
Van Heerden explained how the art and craft market is connected to the Whale Festival. "This year, we decided to get more stalls and marketers in to create a platform for our community to celebrate our whales that are coming back to our coastline that have been gone for such a long time."
"We had handmade products, and we feel that we need to create a platform for everyone to come together and show us what they have. We would have liked to have a bit more feet than what we had, but for us being our first collaboration, I think we did quite well," she said.
The Whale Festival is part of the Swakopmund Scientific Society's Oceans Month festivities. The month of June each year has been dedicated to the waters as Oceans Month by several nations around the world, including Namibia.
Aletta Beukes is thrilled to have a platform to market her products.
