El Mercado La Boca: A Design Haven for Young and Independent Creators

El Mercado La Boca is a funky open-air market that began in 2005 to satiate the artistic appetite of many emerging and independent designers in Madrid. What is now a colorful bazaar full of good company and good art was the result of many Madrid-based artists coming together to create a communal platform for showing and selling their homemade goods. Mercado La Boca’s creative contributors generate an atmosphere in which inspiration, ideas and even friends are shared. There are four of these markets throughout the year (one for each season) and the summer market starts now! June 10 – June 13 in La Plaza Lavapiés.

El Mercado La Boca is only one of La Boca’s exciting projects. La Boca is a creative community with its own Espacio de Cultura, or Cultural Space.  The gallery-like space is in Lavapiés, one of Madrid’s spiciest neighborhoods. According to the website, “practically anything is possible” within the Cultural Space. The community’s objective is to offer a new and alternative channel for the promotion and diffusion of artistic culture. As an open forum-type community, the artists involved with La Boca are constantly and freely sharing ideas and projects.  Expositions, recitals and film screenings are just a few activities one could find in La Boca’s Espacio de Cultura.

Check out La Boca’s market in the next 4 days!  Be sure to bring some cash because what you’ll see will surely be tempting for the wallet.

El Mercado Boca Schedule:

Thursday June 10 : 19:00 p.m. to 23:00 p.m.

Friday June 11: 19:00 p.m. to 23:00 p.m.

Saturday June 12: 12:00 p.m. to 23:00 p.m.

Sunday June 13: 12:00 p.m. to 22:00 p.m.

(metro: Lavapiés)

To learn more about the market, check out the official El Mercado La Boca Blog.

For More information about La Boca’s community at large, click here to see the webpage.

By Chloe Nash