List your market or festival

For organisers. This covers the whole form, then the two things that only organisers do: setting up repeating market dates, and approving the vendors who want to attend.

About 18 minutes to read

Before you start

  • A Market Hive SA account, and you are logged in
  • Your market logo, and a photo of the market in full swing
  • Your trading days and times
  • Optional: your vendor rules or application form as a PDF

Step 1: Open the form and choose Market

On your dashboard click + Create a listing, then click the Market button at the top so it is highlighted in gold.

Four buttons labelled Vendor, Market, Supplier and Entertainment.
Click Market. The questions underneath change to match.

Festivals go here too

Markets, festivals, craft fairs, food fairs, night markets, school fetes and expos all use this same form. There is a market type question further down where you say which one you are.

Step 2: Business details and location

The first two sections ask for the market name, a description and where it happens. The market name is the only compulsory field on the form.

The Business details section with boxes for name, description and category.
Name it exactly as people know it locally.

Write the description for a shopper deciding how to spend their Saturday, not for a vendor. What is the atmosphere, what will they find, is it worth the drive, can they bring the children and the dog.

Step 3: Organisation

The Organisation section with boxes for organising company, market manager, tagline and year established.
Who is behind the market.
  • Organising company - the legal entity, if there is one.
  • Market manager - the person vendors deal with on the day.
  • Tagline - one short line, shown under the name. "Fresh produce every Saturday since 2011".
  • Year established - a long-running market should say so. It reassures both shoppers and vendors.

Step 4: Contact

The Contact section with boxes for contact person, position, mobile, office phone, WhatsApp, public email and website.
Two separate audiences use these: shoppers and vendors.

Use a number somebody answers

Vendor applications and shopper questions both arrive here. An unanswered number is worse than no number, because people assume the market is no longer running.

Step 5: Type and trading

The Type and trading section with market type tick boxes, a trading frequency drop-down, weekday tick boxes, opening and closing times, and a stall count drop-down.
When you are open. Shoppers filter on exactly this.
  • Market type - farmers, craft, food, night market, festival and so on. Tick all that genuinely apply.
  • Trading frequency and days - weekly, monthly, seasonal, and which days.
  • Opening and closing times - the times the public may arrive, not your set-up time.
  • Number of stalls - a size band, so vendors know what they are joining.

Step 6: Vendors

The Vendors section with a drop-down for whether you are accepting vendors, tick boxes for the vendor categories you want, and a choice of how vendors should apply.
This section is read by every vendor considering your market.
  • Are you accepting vendors? - answer honestly. "Full, waiting list only" saves everyone time and does not hurt your listing.
  • Vendor categories wanted - what you are short of. If you have six candle stalls and no fresh produce, tick produce. Vendors filter on this.
  • How should vendors apply? - through this site, by email, or through your own form. If you choose email or a link, fill in the address or web address underneath.

Step 7: Facilities and visitors

The Facilities and visitors section with tick boxes for market facilities, tick boxes for what vendors are provided with, a visitor numbers drop-down, entry fee boxes and a smoking policy.
Practical detail for shoppers on the left, for vendors on the right.
  • Facilities - parking, toilets, wheelchair access, ATM, seating, dog friendly. Shoppers genuinely decide on these.
  • Vendor facilities - power, water, shelter, tables. This is what vendors want to know before applying.
  • Typical visitor numbers - a band, not a promise. Vendors use it to judge whether the stall fee is worth it.
  • Entry fee - tick free entry, or fill in the adult and child prices.

Step 8: The Buzz Recommends

The Buzz Recommends section asking whether you would like recommendations for trusted entertainers, with a budget drop-down and music style tick boxes.
Optional. Tick it and suggested acts appear on your dashboard.

If you tick this, your dashboard will start showing performers matched to your province, your budget and the styles you chose, each with the reasons it matched.

Suggestions only, never a booking

Market Hive SA does not book acts, take commission or sit in the middle. You contact the performer yourself and agree your own terms.

Step 9: Documents and extra media

The Documents and extra media section with upload boxes for a logo, a drone photo, a poster, market rules and a vendor application form.
Uploads. All optional, all useful.
  • Logo and drone or wide photo - up to 4 MB and 8 MB.
  • Poster - for a specific event or season.
  • Market rules and vendor application form - PDF or photo, up to 8 MB each.

Uploading your rules cuts your admin

Vendors can read the rules before they apply instead of emailing to ask. Organisers who upload theirs get fewer unsuitable applications.

Step 10: Images, agreements and submit

Add a main image and up to ten gallery photos, tick the five compulsory agreements, then click Submit application. If you picked a plan on the Hive Memberships page first, you go straight to checkout to finish joining. Otherwise you land on your dashboard, where your market shows as pending until a person has checked it.

The Agreements section with five compulsory tick boxes.
All five are compulsory.

Step 11: Set up repeating dates

Once your market is live, open it with Edit from your dashboard. In the trading section there is a question headed How often does this market run?

A drop-down headed 'How often does this market run?' with options: does not repeat, weekly, every second week, monthly on a weekday such as the first Saturday, and monthly on a date.
Set a pattern once and the site can generate your dates for you.
  • Does not repeat - one-off events only. You add each date yourself.
  • Weekly - every week on your trading days.
  • Every second week
  • Monthly on a weekday - such as the first Saturday of the month.
  • Monthly on a date - such as the 15th.

Save the pattern, and the editor can then suggest the upcoming dates. You review the list and publish the ones you want. Nothing is published behind your back, so a month you are not trading simply does not get published.

Publish a few months ahead

Every published date is a page shoppers can find and a date vendors can apply for. Markets with dates published well ahead attract noticeably more vendor applications.

Step 12: Approve the vendors who apply

When a vendor asks to attend, the request appears on your dashboard inside your markets panel, under Vendor attendance applications.

A gold-bordered block headed 'Vendor attendance applications', explaining that when a vendor applies for Attendance Confirmation the request appears there to approve or decline.
Requests waiting for you. The count appears next to the heading.

Each request shows you, in one place:

  • the vendor's name, contact person, number and email
  • their categories, and whether they sell food
  • the stall size they want and whether they need power, water or shelter
  • the date they applied for, or whether they want to be a regular
  • any compliance certificates they uploaded, as links you can open

Approve or decline from there. Everyone you have approved appears in the Attending vendors block underneath, where you can also remove someone from a single date or cancel them entirely.

A block headed 'Attending vendors' listing approved vendors with their market and date.
Your approved line-up.

This is Attendance Confirmation, not a stall booking

Approving a vendor here confirms they are attending. It is not a stall booking and it does not handle stall fees. Stall bookings stay between you and the vendor exactly as they do now. Market Hive SA never takes a booking or a payment for a stall.

The attendance guide explains the same process from the vendor's side, which is worth reading so you know what they see.

Next guideList your supplier business →For wholesalers, equipment hire, packaging and services that supply traders and markets.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] or use the contact form. Tell us which step you are on and we will walk you through it.