Markets Mornington Peninsula: Mount Martha South Beach on Cup Day
The first craft market out of lockdown will be a 60 stall event including food trucks and live music. Here’s how you can join the party.
South East
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After months of uncertainty and stalled restarts a popular Mornington Peninsula craft market is back in business.
Unrivalled Events has locked in a 60 stall makers market featuring food trucks and live music on the Mt Martha Community House lawn for Cup Day, Tuesday, November 3.
Business owner Paul Harvey said the State Government’s latest road map – announced on October 18 – had confirmed markets could resume.
He was also confident metro Melbourne would move to Step 3 of the road map on November 1, removing the 25km travel limit and paving the way for his event to proceed.
Mr Harvey said the only barrier to the market going ahead was the 25km limit.
“I’m pretty sure that will be scrapped by November 3 too,” he said.
Mr Harvey said numbers for Mt Martha South Beach Market would be capped at 300 per hour and only a total of 1500 people would be allowed to attend.
Tickets were free but had to be pre-booked and by Thursday more than half had already been snapped up.
“With density limits in place due to COVID restrictions we didn’t feel as though we could safely accommodate shoppers on the day and stick to the density limits without making the market all ticket,” Mr Harvey said.
“We know a lot of people will be disappointed to miss out on their market but we need to be safe for ourselves as organisers and also for our shoppers and our stallholders when running markets during this time.”
Ticket holders will be able to spend an hour visiting stalls before being directed to the nearby Chill Hill to “relax with their take away food and drink while following social distancing”.
No additional security had been arranged but Mr Harvey said market staff would manage the crowds.
He had hoped to relaunch on Grand Final Eve (October 23) but lockdown laws meant the reboot had to be moved to November 3.
The market site is owned by Mornington Peninsula Shire and the council website states that all events and activities planned for Shire halls and land had been cancelled during the State of Disaster declared by the Victorian Government.
“The Shire will not be issuing any event, filming, wedding, street stall or signage permits until further notice,” the website states.
But Mr Harvey said he had council approval and a virtual assistant for the shire told the Leader that the market would happen “on the proviso that the restrictions are going to be eased as everyone is expecting”.
“It will not happen if the State Government doesn’t ease the restrictions in this area,” she said.
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