I recently had the pleasure of meeting up with the amazing Timea Jakab, who is a Waterloo Architecture alumna and current adjunct professor at our school. We met in Toronto at University and Adelaide, over green tea and avocado-on-toast, where we discussed her current role as a member of the design committee in this year’s Stop’s Night Market. Timea is currently self-employed, giving her the flexibility she needs to take on an integral role in this year’s event, responding to daily emails and attending regular meetings with the rest of the team.
Jackie Pal and Danielle Goldfinger run the show; both volunteer at The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto. Last year marked the first Night Market; it was Jackie who brought it into full swing after a trip to Thailand, where she took inspiration from the local food and street markets. She teamed up with Danielle and, with the help of a few other unofficial committee members, conducted what at the time was a huge experiment. The first ever Stop’s Night Market turned out to be an enormous success, raising an astonishing $57,000 for the Stop Community Food Centre. Timea was a design team participant, designing and building a food cart with three friends, “I had so much fun throughout the entire process and the night of the event was just magical.”
This year, Timea has joined the design committee. 11 other volunteers make up the media, food & wine, and décor committees. The planning began in August of 2012, as the entire team had to be prepped for the launch of the 2013 event in January. She works closely with Jackie and Danielle, and with the designers of this year’s food carts. A call for food cart design proposals was sent out in February, and Timea participated in selecting the winning designs, as well as creating guidelines for the cart designers. She also keeps up to date with the designers, making sure everyone is on track. The design committee is currently working with the decor committee, developing the layout plan for the Honest Ed’s alleyway and parking lot.
Up to this point, the 2013 NightMarket is a huge success. Apart from a back page in Canadian Architect, the title of Toronto Life’s #5 reason to love Toronto, and an article in The Globe and Mail, The Stop has so far raised $80,000 through ticket sales alone. The goal is to raise a total of $100,000 by the end of the 2-night event through sponsorship and donations, which is happening tonight and tomorrow night. If you’re hoping to get a ticket, it’s too late—tickets sold out on May 22 within 2 hours of going on sale. No need to worry, there’s always next year!
The Night Market starts tonight! Let’s hope it doesn’t rain. (Though there is a rain plan, just in case)
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