First Fridays in Vancouver is a time when shops, galleries and restaurants hold special events and invite the public to wander downtown in a festive atmosphere. It’s always been fun. But there’s something new on the First Friday scene that is drawing attention from both the creative maker community and First Friday shoppers. It’s the new, hip Night Market Vancouver.
Jessica Chan’s Creative Journey
Vancouver resident, Jessica Chan is the founder of Night Market Vancouver. I met Jessica at the bustling Compass Coffee on Washington Street, just around the block from the site of the market at the CoLab Coworking space on Main. Her enthusiasm for her journey with the market and her career bubbled over as we talked.
Jessica is an avid entrepreneur with a degree in industrial design and business. But her story, and source of her work ethic, goes back much farther. Jessica is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who came to the Bay Area in California to find a better life. Her parents worked in the restaurant business and saved their money. A small restaurant came up for sale and the family, including her parents and grandparents, moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon.
While Jessica parents worked long hours in the restaurant to support the family, she was primarily raised by her grandmother in her young age. The family instilled the importance of education and hard work in the children. Jessica’s brother is a physical therapist and she settled on a career path that involved the art of product development and business. “My brother did follow a more traditional route with his career path with what my parents wanted, while I went a bit rogue,” Jessica laughs. “I grew up doing martial arts and that instructor, a second father figure to me today helped shaped new perspectives and always encouraged me to follow my heart.”
Her heart moved her up and down the west coast, she attended Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State University and the Art Institute of Portland. She ultimately settled in Vancouver.
Jessica’s early foray into business was in the development of a unique and complex product, the WINK Pen. The pen, with a hand blown glass tip, was designed to create a sustainable alternative to the everyday writing utensil. WINK was originally derived from the concept of using “wine as ink,” but can be loaded with any liquid that possesses a staining property. It’s fun, artistic and as Jessica puts it, “a learning experience business-wise.” She learned a lot about manufacturing and the cost of production. WINK has been redesigned as she seeks to license the intellectual property to someone else to take it to the next step.
Night Market Vancouver
Jessica is a veteran of pop-up shops and, since she was a maker herself, developed a network of creative people who were interested in selling their products. She had run several pop up shops on her own then made the first ‘night market’ in Vancouver free to all the vendors to test the waters and see how her idea would be received. “It was after the first market that I saw how much potential there was in the downtown area,” Jessica says. “The support from the community that followed truly shined, and that was what lit my fire.” Vancouver Downtown Association, City of Vancouver, and CoLab are examples of organizations that showed their immense support to have be here.”
A fantastic match was found when she gained the sponsorship and support of CoLab and the adjacent Union Chapel. They provide the monthly space. “It’s kind of rambling but we put up lots of signs so people can wander through and find all the vendors,” Jessica shares. Night Market Vancouver was launched last October and is gaining momentum. Her creative event has grown to 60 vendors, mostly from Washington, with approximately a third coming from Portland.
Her vision is to create a hip, fun environment with food, drink and a diverse collection of vendors. You won’t find multi-level marketing types there. But you will find such interesting vendors as PopOctopus, with nerdy, colorful graphic art and SoJo Leather Company’s rustic journals. Jessica keeps half her spots open for new vendors so the offerings are different each time. And the food and drinks change too. But no matter which vendors are there, you can be assured that you’ll enjoy wandering the booths with a crafted drink in hand discovering local products. There’s music and the event is designed to be family friendly, too.
Night Market and More
A woman like Jessica Chan doesn’t sit back and enjoy her successes, she’s always planning more. “Night Market inside is great for winter but I envision that we can have a market outdoors in summer,” she says.
She’s also busy with product development. This time it’s an application. While it’s too early to share details, she’s excited about it. Jessica likes to have scalable products and ventures that will build with her.
Jessica is impressed with Vancouver, the creative energy and the openness to new businesses. She loves the downtown area and being part of it. “One person can make a difference in this city,” she says.
Attending the Night Market Vancouver
The market is free to the public, vendor tables start at $50 and you’ll hear more details on social media each month. “We have a huge push on social media,” Jessica says. Follow their Facebook page and website for updated information. You’ll find the market entrance at 808 Main Street on First Fridays opening at 5:00 p.m.
