We celebrated 1 year in the coolest Market!

Municipal Market of Kypseli completed a year as a Social Entrepreneurship Market under the management of Impact Hub Athens and we celebrated it just right together with the permanent “residents” of the agora alongside the established pop up neighborhood events!

Having as baseline three content pillars, culture, education & social economy, we invited citizen groups & social enterprises and service, ethnic communities, families & residents of Kypseli to coexist and interact in the Municipal Market of Kypseli. 7 permanent businesses and 3 social & educational organizations within a wider network of people, neighbors and communities of the area are constantly cocreating content in the Agora.

Throughout this year, we cultivated new interest for the visitors of the Market, by staging multi-themed events, festivals, educational activities and new experiences by enhancing the sense of “pride” among the residents of the area.

We have staged over 30 cultural productions, initiated by Impact Hub Athens and we have collaborated with 45 cultural organizations in Greece & abroad, such as “Dialogues” by Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation, #7daychallenge by the Embassy of Sweden in Greece, Cine-mageiremata in collaboration with Goethe Institut Athens, MitOst, Athens Zero Waste Festival with Plastikourgeio.

In this first year we teamed up with the Aithiopian, Ukrainian & Georgian ethnic communities and staged 3 EthnoFests, meanwhile we curated 30 Pop up Markets on a weekly & monthly basis, such as Super Kypseli – a meetup festival with the businessmen, craftsmen & arty personas of the neighborhood-, Mpostani, a market/community of local producers and Pop up brunch, the culinary happening for all the food lovers around Athens.

With regards to the educational domain the Municipal Market of Kypseli has hosted more than 230 students through 2000 hours of educational activities focusing on the development of new skills, access and the familiarization with the contemporary technological & entrepreneurial tools and new means of expression. Music plays a vital role as the ultimate tool of expression. This led to the creation of Unison, a group of kids & teenagers from diverse backgrounds who interact and tell their story, adhering to the methodology of El Sistema and community arts.

Through events and activities with social and environmental impact, Municipal Market of Kypseli attracted more than 100.000 visitors. Epanekkinissis donated 175 fixed PCs in 27 schools while GFOSS offered 10 series of lessons on programming, web design & basic IT skills to more than 250+ interested individuals, 23 beneficiaries found jobs through Caritas Hellas educational seminars and 1114 individuals were legally supported by Danish Refugee Council. Wise Greece supported and promoted more than 100 small producers and 2 tons of food were donated to fringe groups of the Municipality of Athens.

Back to the Celebration Week

We began the 1 year celebration with a dive into tastes through a festive Pop up Brunch in colloaboration with Gold Pig, El Burro Tacos, Madame Phu ManChu, Guerilla Chef, Cookie Dude, Bread & Roses & Eri bakes vegan accompanied by the tunes of Pepper Radio 96.6.

The culinary action was backed up by an educational activity of Goethe Institut Athen where we investigated the “utopia” in our city.

Caritas Hellas “attended” the fest with a colourfoul action in collaboration with Athens Street Art Festival.

A special Jam Night was staged on the occasion of the 1year anniversary which gave new pulse & tunes to the week!

Epanekkinissis invited young students and introduced them to the 1st Agora of Social Enterpreneurship and into the notions of recycling & circular economy.

13m2 Gallery by EEA Margarita held a weaving workshop. Pirates City celebrated their release in the Agora with a dynamic live concert!

The festive cross-themed anniversary week was completed with the coolest neighborhood fest, Super Kypseli, a meetup of all commercial & creative human capital of the area, where visitors can shop everything from the little local stores and get to know the real faces behind the businesses.
During the event, Wise Greece popped up from their store and offered a unique tasting experience while Danish Refugee Council decorated the Agora with photos from the project “Photopolis”.