It is an annual holiday season staple for both Cariboo Chilcotin shoppers and artisans.
Each year, artisans and creators of all kinds gather in Williams Lake Secondary School for the Medieval Market. This year the market will take place Saturday, Nov. 16 and Sunday, Nov. 17.
But the weekend is much more than an opportunity for artists and makers to sell their wares and a favourite place for residents to get unique creations made locally.
The market also includes musical performances, a festive holiday atmosphere and most of all, students.
High school students are a big part of the Medieval Market, and not only because the location for the market is the high school itself. Students are the engine which help make the whole thing run, and the market does more than keep them busy, it is a major fundraising event.
Student workers earn the money they need to participate in a range of extracurricular activities. The profits from the market go into a collective pool from which students can draw funds based on their volunteer hours, to help support things like sports team trips, school supplies and club or team activities.
A few students took the time to tell us what they feel they gain from the market, beyond earning money, and why they'll be volunteering again this year.
Journey Carlson-Campbell is a 17-year-old Grade 12 student who will be performing music at the market for the fourth year in a row, as well as volunteering for the third year in other roles.
Journey is a vocalist and guitar-player who said the Medieval Market has been what helped build her confidence to be able to perform in public. When music teacher Dena Baumann heard Journey playing and singing in the school hallway, where she would go to practice away from the other students, Baumann told her she should be performing. Baumann, who organizes the musical performers for the market each year, then invited Journey to come and play on the small stage at the market.
Journey said the market was the perfect place for her to get comfortable performing in front of people, and the small stage is really beginner-friendly, with less focus on the performers. Since her first year at the market, she's been building confidence and now has performed in many venues with a number of different collaborators, and she credits Baumann and the market with making it possible.
Journey has also done a range of other volunteer jobs at the market and said these helped her develop her people skills.
“It's a great atmosphere,” she said, noting with the fast pace, but positive environment, it helped her learn to work under pressure. Journey has been saving up her earnings over the years of volunteering and plans to put her funds raised towards participating in a model United Nations (U.N.) event this year in the Lower Mainland. Does she recommend volunteering at the market to other students?
“Wholeheartedly. It's a good opportunity for anyone but especially young artists,” she said, noting Baumann makes sure any student musician who wants to can perform at the market. This year Journey will be playing both the main stage and the small stage, solo and with other musicians.
Brianna Pope has only volunteered for one year, but the 16 year-old in Grade 11 is looking forward to doing it again after last year's experience.
“I really like seeing the different members of community and all the different passions people have around here,” she said. Brianna also said she appreciated seeing everything come together in one place and all the work done by different students, including all of the many athletes who volunteer to earn funds for their sports teams at the market each year.
“I feel like I saw a lot of passion and hard work on the student end as well,” she said, adding it is really great to be able to be contributing to the community while also earning money for student clubs.
Pope is another student who will be putting her earnings towards the model U.N. trip.
While Pope said she came into the jobs she did for the market with some skills, having worked before at other jobs, she said the market broadened those skills.
“I really did enjoy making more connections with other members of the community,” she said.
Having come to the market throughout her childhood, it was something she always loved, but as a student, she had begun to see the school from a different perspective.
“Then to also see it back in the Medieval Market is really refreshing,” she said, helping her appreciate her school in a different way in what it brings to the whole community.
She said seeing the range of talents people have and how they have transformed those into businesses is inspirational for her.
“I think there's just something for everyone at the Medieval Market and I think that's really cool.” Pope said she remembers coming to the market as a young child and seeing the high school students volunteering and they seemed so grown up. Having looked up to them for so long, she's happy to get to her chance to take part.
“I think it benefits everyone in community, from the people who attend as well as the vendors, obviously they make money, but then the school is completely transformed and all these students have opportunities that we wouldn't be able to do [otherwise],” she said.
Another lifelong market patron is Ella Kruus, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student who loved the market so much she and her brother asked their mom if they could work there even before high school. Beginning when she was about 10, Ella and her older brother began helping at the market, bringing vendors their food.
She's volunteered most years since then. Now, as a senior student volunteer, she's going to be helping out again, performing as well as volunteering and working at a table selling tickets to her student musical.
A singer/songwriter, Ella will be playing some piano and singing on the small stage, helping to build her own performing confidence and skills.
“You meet a lot of different people, not just people your age but older people, younger people, people from all over who are vendors and whenever you go into the kitchen there's someone laughing or giving you free food,” she said of the behind-the-scenes atmosphere. “Everyone feels like they belong there.That can sometimes be rare when you're in high school I think.”
She said an eight-hour shift goes by fast at the market.
Yet another student fan of the market is Dallas Moe, a young woman who graduated in 2023, but will be returning for this year to volunteer.
“The market helped me learn a bunch of skills I wouldn't have learned in school or at my regular job, which opens up a lot of opportunities for me as a musician,” she said.
Moe is now 19 but started volunteering at the market when she was 15 in her Grade 10 year.
“Everyone in school would talk about the market,” said Moe, who said it built a real sense of community for the students.
Since then, she's done nearly every job they have, from helping vendors set up to finally, last year, helping Baumann stage manage the music.
“It's such a great community event,” she said, noting she put the funds she earned as a student volunteer towards her band trips and purchasing music supplies.
“Music is my passion,” she said, noting working in the busy, crowded environment is fun too.
“It's not even overwhelming there, it's just exciting and you're just kind of immersed in this big community experience that happens only once a year. It's definitely Williams Lake's —or at least the school's— biggest community event,” she said.
“Every student has a chance to be a part of that,” she said, noting it is especially important for anyone interested in music, because it's such a positive, welcoming environment for younger students to come and learn.
“It's just so cool meeting all these different people and having a connection with these people through art,” said Moe.
“It wouldn't be possible without all these students and teachers and volunteers and community members.”
