The Punta Arabí Hippy Market opens its doors punctually at 10 am as it has every Wednesday for almost 50 years, since it was founded in 1973. Hundreds of tourists are already browsing among the stalls at that time and some buy items, especially jewelry and clothing.
While some try on clothes and bracelets, others opt for a cool drink to quench their thirst, with the thermometer already reaching 30 degrees.
The vendors, some of them veterans of the Hippy Market, attend to the customers who arrive non-stop. “This business has been here since I was nine years old, my parents ran it. Now I have inherited it, like most of the stalls of my colleagues,” says Victoria, one of the artisans yesterday at her stall, which is next to the entrance of the market. She, like many other artisans, moves around different markets: “I go to Cala Llonga, to the one on Sundays in Sant Joan and to the craft fairs organized by the Consell”. Victoria, like some of her other colleagues, goes to the markets that remain open in winter. “We also do workshops and make the accessories” that will later be sold in their stalls, she explains.
Vendors at the Hippy Markets seeing sales slowing
Lina Escandell has been running her stall for more than 25 years and sells children’s clothing, which she makes while she has no customers. Although sales worked very well during the first months of this season, things have changed, and for the worse: “May and June have been good months for the business, but so far this July sales have fallen,” says Escandell, who only sells her goods at the Punta Arabí Hippy Market and who has been unable to do so for the last two years because of the pandemic.
Amparo Fernández is in charge of a stall where she sells semi-precious stones and pendants made with them. Although her stall has been at the market for fifteen years, she has only been selling quartz and other types of stones for two years. “We are dedicated to selling crystals and other natural stones. Apart from selling here, we also go to the Las Dalias and Sant Joan Hippy Markets, where, in addition, we can also continue working in winter,” says Fernández.
Some of the tourists who have come to the market come from different parts of Spain and others come from foreign countries. “It’s the first time I’ve come here, but my husband has been here more than once,” says Hind Elyazan, a tourist from Girona. “In the last ten years I’ve been to the market about seven times, and I think I’ve also been to the one in Las Dalias,” doubts Jasmin Kaufmenn, a Swiss tourist who usually goes to this type of market and buys bracelets, “colorful” dresses and the occasional handbag.
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