Winterfair: Hartford’s Holiday Market to return at Union Station this holiday season 

HARTFORD, CT - Winterfair: Hartford’s Holiday Market returns to Hartford for its second year. Downtown Hartford will be packed full of opportunities to shop local and shop small to celebrate the holidays.

Winterfair is a holiday market with something for everyone on your list that strives to bring the holiday spirit back to downtown Hartford. It is a place for local makers, creatives, craftspeople, and entrepreneurs to share their talents with the local community, all with the purpose of shopping small and local this holiday season. Over 100 small businesses are expected to participate again this year. 

This year, Winterfair will take place in Union Station, 1 Union Place, Hartford. The Great Hall will be transformed into an indoor holiday market. The Greater Hartford Transit District operators of Union Station are excited to welcome events back to the Great Hall. “The Greater Hartford Transit District is extremely pleased to have Winterfair at Union Station this upcoming holiday season. The importance of bringing a vibrant and proven successful event to this end of Hartford is important for the residents of this City, neighboring towns, and visitors from other outlying states.” Winterfair will kick off on Small Business Saturday, November 26th. Winterfair aims to create a spectacular holiday experience with a total of 12 market days culminating on December 23rd. 

The market will operate on 11/26-11/27, 12/2-12/4, 12/9-12/11, 12/16-12/18 & 12/23, Fridays 5-9pm, Saturday & Sundays 12-5pm. Special events, workshops and more throughout the 4 weeks will spotlight local talents and businesses as well as showcasing recent graduates of the Floor–Plan Retail Incubator program in partnership with reSET Entreprise Trust. 

About

Winterfair: Hartford’s Holiday Market is hosted by Hartford based community venture building studio, Breakfast Lunch & Dinner. The studio’s vision is to bring about collective culture in the region. The studio has worked on projects and events including KNOW GOOD Market, KNOW GOOD Nights, and First Night Hartford. Winterfair is part of the studio’s Floor–Plan retail activation initiative. The program aims to develop a local, modern, and robust retail community in Hartford through supporting local, small businesses. This multifaceted project is a collective effort between various Hartford based community partners to transform the vitality of our city’s retail and small businesses. The initiative has included a technical assistance retail incubator program with reSET Social Enterprise Trust, an incubator store in store at Semilla Cafe + Studio, an e-commerce platform in partnership with Cafeteria Media. The program beneficiaries are largely Hartford based, small, local business owners with an emphasis on Hartford residents, minority owned businesses, as well as businesses owned by low to moderate income individuals. The retail community the program seeks to support aims to reflect the diverse demographics of Hartford by supporting Black, and Hispanic business owners.