Mercado Fora d'Horas 2017 Community design iniciative

Mercado Fora d’Horas[1] is a gastronomic event about local culture with a strong creative component. It intends to attract audiences to the municipal markets and simultaneously exhibit their social and cultural importance. This event is an action of the Consumir Local project scope, that was held for the first time on July 27, 2016 in Silves municipal market, Portugal, and this is part of the graphic communication of the second edition, that toke place in the summer of 2017.

Silves municipal market, as others in Portugal, is a landmark in city architecture and occupies a privileged location revealing the importance it had in the citizens routine. Municipal markets represent an endangered lifestyle and commerce model, mainly due to social changes and several economical pressures.

The programme of Mercado Fora d’Horas is focused on the gastronomic qualities of the location. There was the concern that all the promotion and offer of the event had a logic inside that space, to claim the market as a cultural attraction. The promotion was focused on the differentiated offer of the market and the programming in the local food as an attraction. On the programming proposal several activities were developed: night market, games about local food production, meetings and cooking moments, music, photography and design.

In the second edition were designed more immersive experiences, which enabled the public to recognize the space through the senses. The event happened on 3 different nights: one night over the smells, another over the hear and the last over the sight. The experiences are positioned between the cultural memory and the relationships that the public has with food.

[1] Mercado Fora d’Horas in Portuguese means in a literal translation After hour Market, but it can stands for more than that, something out of its normal schedule or routine.