On Sunday the iconic Channon Craft Market celebrated fifty years of handmade, homegrown and locally made with a special market event.
Benny Zable came back from Melbourne to create an impromptu happening, including flag dancing and a community banner unfurling, the Chai Tent returned, and Chris Fisher’s band Monkey & the Fish commemorated his own anniversary, 36 years of performing at the markets solo and with various bands.
The weather smiled on market-goers as they celebrated five decades of magic market mornings.
Hand-made and making history
Growing out of the early years of the alternative movement in the Northern Rivers, and a crucial focus for nationally significant protests including the Terania blockade and the fight against CSG, the Channon Market has been bringing all sorts of people together in its half century; makers and bakers, growers and artists, musicians and buskers, locals and visitors, old friends and new ones.
The market has always driven by volunteers and community spirit. Special T shirts commemorating the event were popular on the weekend.
Originally happening just around the corner, near the hall, and then moving to Coronation Park, the Channon Craft Market has gone from its humble origins in 1976 as a celebration of doing things differently to becoming a much-loved and staple Northern Rivers event, still happening on the second Sunday of every month, weather permitting.
May the long time sun continue to shine upon the Channon Market for at least another fifty years.
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