Portland Night Market Creates Community

written by Julie Lee | photos courtesy of Portland Night Market

For those who love to eat, drink and shop—and who doesn’t?— entrepreneur Emma Pelett fuses retail, music and culinary art four times each year inside a 108-year-old industrial warehouse in the underbelly of southeast Portland. Pelett grew up in her family business, traveling as a buyer for City Liquidators and became enamored with the night markets in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Beijing. “My vision for Portland Night Market was to promote small and local business, bring new people to the district, and create community in the Central Eastside Industrial District,” Pelett said. Free for all ages, the doors swing open at 4 p.m. to a vibrant scene of artisan everything: Portland’s premier merchants’ pop-up shops selling wares, bars featuring craft cocktails, brews and ciders, top local restaurants offering snacks from churros to sushi. The bohemian beat goes on all night, with rotating art installations, musical performances and massage tables for when you need a pause in the revelry. Founded in 2015, Portland Night Market showcases and celebrates the collaborative rather than competitive nature of the city’s vendors, epitomizing the culture that personifies Portland as simultaneously quirky and nationally lionized.