Brisbane Night Market opens every Friday from 4pm to 10pm, and the same organizers also run the Saturday Fresh Market and the Sunday Discovery Market at the same location. It took quite a bit of time to travel out here by public transport from the city centre. I would’ve come for the other two markets if they were more accessible and the trading hours were later (currently both open from 6am to 12pm).
As the market was completely undercover, we didn’t need to worry about it suddenly raining. However, because of this same reason, it was also terribly hot and stuffy inside (probably due to the heat build-up from all the lights and cooking in the venue). Might have been better to visit during a season other than summer.
Of all the markets I’ve ever been to, this was the first one that imposed an entry fee of $2.50 per person. Affordable, but unusual. Majority of the stalls here were selling food, and the few shopping stalls that lined the sides near the entrance weren’t selling anything particularly interesting so that was a bummer. Towards the back, there were numerous food trucks selling a wide variety of cuisines: Thai food, Japanese food, Spanish food, French desserts and even Hungarian food. I probably walked past each stall at least three times trying to decide what to get, I was truly spoilt for choice.
Earlier in the evening, there was a group of Christmas carollers bringing some festive cheer with their songs. They didn’t look too thrilled to be there though. As it progressed later into the evening, the carollers took their leave and a 3-man blues band went on stage to provide the live music. We were really digging the funky grooves this band was dishing out, they played with so much soul. These guys were the highlight of my experience here.
My overall rating of the experience: 3 out of 5 stars. Even though I absolutely love fairy lights and this place was decked out in them, there were many things that made the experience less enjoyable than it should’ve been. The heat was quite unbearable at some points because of the poor ventilation. I also thought there would be more shopping stalls to browse from so my expectations were not met (didn’t know the focus would be so heavily on food). On top of that, we also had to travel quite a distance via public transport, making it a tad inconvenient to get here. But I really did like the talented band that played that night, they were definitely a treat to listen to (:
Dania Experiences 