Dates
Summer Market
July 18th to July 20th
Vendor call: May 6th to 20th
Halloween Market
September 26th to 28th
Vendor call: July 15th to 29th
Holiday Market
November 28th to 30th
Vendor call: September 16th to 30th
Location
Your studio or home. This is an online market with no in-person sales. All vendors must be based in Canada, and offer prices in Canadian dollars.
Duration
The pop-up market weekend will run for three days, from 12:01am Eastern Standard Time on the Friday until 11:59pm EST on the following Sunday.
Admission
There is no cost to customers to view the site, and no obligation to make a purchase.
Why online?
There is no denying the energy and sense of community at an in-person market, and we will continue to present our monthly Toronto Dark Arts Market events. But it’s also a fact that due to location, scheduling, or health issues, many people, both artisans and customers, just can’t make it out.
We also know that, while there is enthusiasm to shop and support Canadian artisans, it can be hard to find them, especially on larger sites such as Etsy. And especially when the work is dark, weird, or macabre.
So an online market for our niche demographic helps artisans and customers find each other, all while supporting the Canadian economy.
Vendor Cost & What You Get
Cost to participate is $50.00 per vendor. You must also offer either a discount to customers who visit your online shop via the link on our site, or a dedicated percentage of market-generated sales donated to a charity of your choice.
For that fee you get a page on our market site dedicated to your business that includes a header image, a biography, a gallery of images, the option of including a short video, and a link to your website. Each vendor’s page will also be linked from both an alphabetical listing and a category-based listing elsewhere on our site.
Vendors will also each be featured in a post to our socials and on our website’s blog in the days leading up to the market.
Vendors may also choose to host some kind of promotion such as a “live” Instagram event at some point during the market weekend that we will promote/link to, although this is not required.
How it works
Vendors apply in the same way as for an in-person market. All applicants will be notified of their inclusion status in a timely manner at the end of the vendor call, and will pay for their spot in advance.
Vendors will be asked to provide images and a biography, and we will create a page on our site for each business. These pages and a main page listing all vendors alphabetically will go “live” for the duration of the market and then will be removed from the site when the market is over.
Vendors should use the time between being accepted and market weekend to update their sites with new merchandise, add promo codes, etc.
Shoppers will visit our website during market weekend and will follow links to each vendors’ page on our site and then another link to your personal site where they will make purchases directly from you. You keep the full purchase amount.
Total number of vendors
For our first market, we will be limiting the number of participating vendors to 50, but we may adjust that number for future events based on vendor and customer response.
For most categories of items, excepting art and jewellery, we will probably not book more than one or two vendors with similar wares. In categories with multiple vendors, we try to ensure as diverse an array of merchandise as possible.
What you can sell
This is a curated market and will be open to vendors whose wares may appeal to folks of a dark or alternative nature, or that don’t really fit into the mainstream. We are looking for items that are spooky, creepy, macabre and plain old weird.
All participating vendors must play an active part in the work on their website ‒ you must design, or design and manufacture, everything you will be selling.
While the selection process for our markets will prioritize handmade items, we will also consider artists selling works of their own art manufactured by a third party such as books or graphic novels, music media and related promotional items such as t-shirts, or functional art where the artist’s work is printed onto items such as clothing and accessories, housewares, etc..
Sorry, vintage and collectible sellers – we do love you, but for this site we are prioritizing artists and artisans.
What you CANNOT sell
We will not knowingly book any vendor selling any of the following, and vendors who include any of the following items will not be invited to participate again:
- any item prohibited by law; this includes but is not limited to guns, weapons, and drugs.
- live animals of any kind. All specimens/oddities/taxidermy must be ethically sourced.
- any item or artwork featuring images, characters, or logos that you do not hold the trademark or copyright for. This includes fan art (ie. art in your own style inspired by licensed or fictional characters), or directly copied images of another artist’s work. Considerations will be made for works of parody or satire; if you are unsure, contact us.
- any item depicting work that is AI-generated.
- any item that may be considered racist, religious, anti-religious, defamatory towards any individual, group, or organization, or that veers into the realm of cultural appropriation.
- new, manufactured items from importers, resellers, or multi-level marketing companies.
- vintage or collectible items
Types of web stores accepted
Any web-based e-commerce site where your work alone is the focus of the store. This can be a privately-hosted site with your own domain, a Wix (or similar) site, or a “storefront” on a larger hosted site such as Etsy or CraftedCanadian, but may not be a third-party shop or “stockist” carrying limited quantities of wares from multiple artists.
For graphic artists only, a print-on-demand site such as RedBubble, Society 6, Le Galleriste, etc., where you maintain an individual “storefront” and where your art is printed onto various items, is acceptable – but only if you do not have a site where you are filling orders directly.
Your site should:
- be active; updated with new items within the past month
- have at least ten (10) distinct items for sale; more is better
- show prices in Canadian dollars
- include prices for all items and any variations
- include measurements for sized items such as clothing
- show dimensions and, if applicable, weight of items
- show shipping costs if shipping is not free/included
- have a professional presentation
Shared spots
Acceptance is based on your work alone. Your page will feature your online shop only and you may not add the work of any other artisan to your shop during the market period.
Insurance
We do not require vendors for this market to have insurance, as you are not selling items in a physical environment where we may be considered liable if someone becomes ill or injured.
When customers click on the link to move from our site to yours, they will see a message indicating that they are leaving the Dark Arts Market Canada site and that we are not responsible for their interactions with you or your products. This is also clearly stated on the Customer Info page.
Vendors selling cosmetic or bodycare items, or items that are ingested ‒ such as any kind of food or drink ‒ should adhere to all Federal, Provincial and Municipal regulations that apply to their businesses/products including liability insurance, facility inspection and certification, and legal qualifications or handler status.
Concurrent markets
We do not restrict where else you can vend during market weekend (either in-person or online) but we ask that all vendors who have the opportunity to take part in other events on this weekend ensure that they have enough product, and that they are able to be attentive to their online customers.
You do not have to be in your studio 24/7, filling orders as soon as they come in, but you must be responsive to any sales generated by your inclusion in our market, and be prepared to fill all orders in a timely manner.
Time frame to ship orders
Our markets are scheduled to allow vendors to complete and ship items in time for any related holiday. For instance, our Halloween market runs in September to ensure items arrive at their destination by Halloween.
We expect that all items sold on market weekend be shipped within one week of the sales date. Please ensure that you are able to meet this deadline.
The exception to this would be vendors offering bespoke, custom-made items, in which case you should have clear communication with the customer regarding when their items will be completed and shipped.
Shipping options
You (or your host site) may determine which shipping options are available to your customers, and at what cost. We ask that these options, and any related handling charges, be clearly outlined, so customers are aware of their options and related fees.
Customer discrepancies
As outlined on the Customer Information page, once a visitor clicks the link and moves from this site to yours, Dark Arts Market Canada accepts no responsibility for any part of the interaction. We act as a referral service only, and will not intervene in cases of discrepancy or miscommunication.
Your policies regarding shipping costs and times, refunds/exchanges, custom work, etc., should all be clearly posted on your site and, if appropriate, communicated as part of the transaction.
Vendors using a third-party site such as Etsy should follow directions as outlined by the site’s administration.
Event promotion
As Dark Arts Market Canada is a Canada-wide on-line market, our promotion will be exclusively online.
We will be running paid advertising across Canada via Meta.
We also have a full campaign of posts to social media that include featured vendors, as well as promotional activities during market weekend to draw customers to our event.
We will make regular posts on Facebook to Canada-wide Goth-specific groups, as well as various regional groups (ie. Toronto Goth, etc.) and each market will have a separate event page on Facebook.
Major announcement posts will also be cross-posted to the Toronto Dark Arts Market and Stained Productions accounts.
Each market will be listed with any event sites that include on-line Canada-wide events.
All vendors accepted to a Dark Arts Market Canada market are required to promote the event to their own customers and social media followers.
Online traffic
We are unable to offer details of how busy the event will be at present as no markets have taken place yet. We run various tracking plug-ins on our site so we can monitor traffic, and will be doing so during market weekend.
Please note that we cannot guarantee that visitors to our site will follow links to any/all vendor shops or that they will make a purchase while they are there.
We encourage participating vendors to make their sites easy to navigate with clear details and prices, and to have various incentives (discounts, coupons for repeat business, giveaways, mailing list sign-ups, etc.) to encourage visitors to your site to return, even after the market is over.
Payment for your spot
Upon acceptance, vendors will receive an acceptance letter and contract. Payment can be made via eTransfer or PayPal. Vendors will have four days from the date of their contract/acceptance to make the payment in full, or the spot will be offered to the next person on the waiting list. We regret that we are unable to offer payment extensions to any vendor.
Cancellation
Once you have been accepted and paid for your space, there is absolutely no refund, for any reason.
If the event is cancelled by Dark Arts Market Canada, a full refund will be issued. We are not responsible for other expenses incurred by you in the process of preparing for the market.
Next Vendor Call
The Vendor application form will open on May 6th for our Summer Market Vendor Call.
Still have questions? Drop us a line via or join our mailing list via our Contact page.