In Retrospect from the Observer: Singh Beans @ the 2022 Holiday Markets
Written By Pavan
Have you ever been able to sit back, dead center, in the middle of everything happening, and get to watch the most meaningful moments in your life happen? I can definitely say I have. In fact, I was doing just that this past weekend during Singh Beans’ attendance at the annual Shipyard’s Holiday market, which took place at the historic Pipe Shop in North Vancouver.
If you have haven’t been to the Shipyards Christmas Market held by Bea and watched as Michael makes a balloon hat for a kid while making poo jokes, you are missing out. Let me walk you through the market from an observers prospective from this side of the table. When I think of the winter holidays and Christmas, I am provoked to dig into my 90s movie references. I would describe the market as Miracle on 34th street meets The Santa Clause meets Jingle All the Way. It is wholesome, magical, and at times chaotic but laughter always gets you through.
The market is set in a beautiful, dream-like location at the Shipyards in North Vancouver with a mountain backdrop. From the moment you walk in, you feel the magic, and the atmosphere is bustling with optimism. As soon as you see familiar faces, well wishes, and hugs, you can’t help but smile. Then, you hear the booming Michael projecting his wonderful voice through the morning chaos to give instructions to all the vendors about how the morning will be starting. At that same moment, Singh Beans is there brewing some coffee and filling the room with the greatest aroma in the morning; fresh coffee. Our gracious organizer Bea, will then emerge for a moment from her busy morning to make a quick stop for coffee with a hint of Oat Nog, curated, of course, by special request. After that, the setup somehow completes itself, and the Pipe Shop quickly fills up. The lights hang from the high ceilings and are glowing just as brightly as everyone in the room; eager to share their goods that they made with love throughout the year. With a little bit of goofiness from the Singh Beans team, love and laughter the market is deemed a success!
Reflecting back on the event, the real treat was the moment I realized what was truly happening. My involvement with Singh Beans gives me the opportunity to stay at arms length from operations while still be in the middle of it all. I get to observe how something as simple as a cup of coffee can change one’s mood or how it can keep a market going. The markets could keep going without coffee. Call it my bias, but Singh Beans was not only serving up coffee, we were serving up a catalyst to community. I observed several instances where our Singh Beans coffee table was a point of introduction; vendor to vendor and customer to vendor. Becoming a central point at the market also allowed us to meet so many more people. Just like we do at Gurdwara for short periods of down time, we were able to go around table to table serving hot coffee for all the vendors who could not leave their booths, which served as an additional method of meeting the community and getting conversations started. These instances, I believe, are the most meaningful to me.
Singh Beans has been attending the holiday markets for three years now. We entered the market as rookies. Not only did the market community not truly know us but we didn’t know how we would fit in either. I remember getting ready for the market; I was taken a bit by my feelings of anxiousness and uncertainty. In retrospect, I cannot express how grateful we are to the community members and vendors of the Shipyards Market for welcoming Singh Beans with open arms. We were so excited to attend because of how much fun we had and the warmth we experienced from the whole community in 2021. I even remember sitting in the van right after the 2021 market and talking about how excited we were already for the next year. We were even preplanning our outfits!
The anxiousness and uncertainty from last year had now been turned on its head and evolved into excitement and tenacity. From a business perspective, we had a better idea of what to expect. Singh Beans has had a year to build a stronger brand, audience, and consumer-vendor relationship. From a wholesome perspective, we now had friends and family at the market that we were reuniting with after a whole year of not seeing each other. How could we not be delighted to be given the privilege of attending?
The Singh Beans would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been supporting us through our journey. We would also like to thank all of our friends who came out to visit us at the market. Huge thank you to our family who continually helps us on a daily basis from spreading the word to wrapping bags. We could not do this without your encouragement and love.
We would also like to take a moment to especially highlight vendors from the market who have supported us and have made us feel at home during the markets. Take a moment to check them out on Instagram:
@isabellaellisstudios - we gotta give a shoutout to our old table neighbour!
@glasea - We are always happy to see Mona at the same market, you know its going to be a good time!
@toons_sauces - some of the kindest people in the game. Coffee is on the house!
@drinkwize - I am sure you regretted being next to the loudest guys in the room. WIZE UP!
@sonsofvancouver - Shawn is our spirit animal. We will always redirect people to you.
@noisycrewandco - always love to see the Noisy Crew
Thank you to everyone else that made this a wonderful experience! We will see you in 2023.
