We’ve been working with the lovely people of Test Valley Borough Council in Andover for a good few years now. It began with a Vision and masterplan to help create a social, inclusive, green, creative and enterprising town centre. The plan rethinks the existing shopping centre, addresses access issues, and opens up the incredible crystal-clear chalk stream river that runs through the town.
The Vision and masterplan also highlighted the importance of meanwhile activations, pop-up activity, and events to bring together the local community, help to create identity, and to give residents and visitors the gift of surprise and entertainment, helping increase visitor satisfaction and town centre footfall.
It made sense that the next step was to work with TVBC on an ‘event and meanwhile strategy’ for the town centre. The strategy explored ways Andover could be bold coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, creating proposals for place-specific markets, events and meanwhile uses.
Andover and its surrounding towns and villages are packed with talent – designing, making, cooking, crafting, and brewing. With this in mind, we knew it was time to do what we do best and work with our client to produce a creative-led independent market.
During spring 2022 our team compiled an extensive list of local craftspeople, producers, and street food traders to call upon, devised a visual identity, comms plan, and established a set of values to set the tone for the event (to align with the Andover place brand that we had also recently completed) and help TVBC identify traders going forward.
Second Sundays brings together some of the best local producers, designer-makers, and artists in the region, alongside street food, live DJs, and free creative workshops, on the second Sunday of every month in Andover town centre.
Following a successful launch in June 2022, Second Sundays has gone from strength to strength, building on both trader and visitor numbers each month.
“The market has been a wonderful opportunity for my mobile bar to bring craft beer and local gin cocktails to Andover Town Centre. We have attended 2 markets so far and each time they get bigger and better with new stalls and lovely new product ideas to tempt customers.”
— Paula, Andover Tap.
“For a startup like Trailside Coffee, it’s been invaluable for building connections, growing the business and meeting like minded people doing great things.”
— Ben, Trailside Coffee