Liam McNally
Bacchus Marsh Market will not go ahead this month, and is on an indefinite hiatus until organisers find a new location from which to operate.
Bacchus Marsh Market is run by local organisation Urban Markets and owner Felicity Ashman said the Maddingley Park location had become unviable since Moorabool council began charging almost $900 per event to use the space.
The “extremely popular” market has been running since April last year, and hosts up to 60 stalls and 1200 visitors once a month, with stall fee proceeds going towards the Bacchus Marsh Strawberry and Cherry Festival.
Ms Ashman said they were not charged to use the space by council in 2022.
“I’m not against ‘user-pays’, however that feels a little excessive given that no other council charges us for the grounds we have operated on,” she said.
“This would result in our fees doubling, which makes it unsustainable to keep the market open for the stallholders.
“Given that we are trying to raise money to support the largest free community event in the shire, that receives no public funding, how are we supposed to do that if the avenue for fundraising is gone or if the fees and charges outweigh what we can make?”
Moorabool council chief executive Derek Madden said council applies fees at Maddingley Park for all events to support the maintenance of the park.
According to the last council budget, there is a fee of $450.40 to hold an event that is open to the public at Maddingley Park, and another $420.30 toilet cleaning fee. These fees are proposed to increase by $26.10 in the upcoming budget.
Mr Madden added that the market wasn’t charged the fee in 2022 due to an “error” on the part of council and that market organisers “were not charged the fees they should have been charged for use of the park”.
“This has now been rectified,” he said.
Ms Ashman said the prospect of closing the market is “upsetting” because it feels like the “market family is breaking up”.
“We would love to know if there’s other locations we could use for a market… we’d like to ensure that we can keep the market open with a new location so we can continue our fundraising.”
People with suggestions for a new market location can contact Ms Ashman.
Details: admin@urbanmarkets.com.au
