Andy Nichols
‘We have more support coming up from the community than we have coming down from the city’
Market Collective is almost three years old. How does it feel to be the parents to a toddler?
AG: The twos were terrible. The threes will be good. Actually I’ve never thought about it like that before but last year was bad. There were a lot of growing pains figuring out space issues where the event fit in the city and how people responded to it. People respond well but in the second year there was more room for people to figure out if they like it or not.
AD: I can’t wait until it’s five. Then we can put it in school.
So what was the verdict?
AG: I think it went well. There was a lot of city and building stuff and it was just hard on us.
Is Market Collective still going to be held at the old Ant Hill building?
AD: We’ve been looking for spaces. From the very beginning we knew that the Ant Hill wouldn’t be a permanent space. We occupied it about two years ago and we’ve been looking for a new space since to compensate for when we lose it. We haven’t really found something that equals what we need but we’ve definitely been looking. In this city there’s just not a lot of options. The infrastructure isn’t created for this sort of vacancy in a really amazing spot.
How much are you spending on the building?
AD: It’s $700 for a day. It’s paid for by the entry fees and table rentals. It’s the same way that a non-profit would run: You funnel all of the funds within the organization and then you disperse them the way they need to be. All the extras go back into the organization.
How have your dealings been with the City of Calgary?
AD: You’re going right to the nitty-gritty.
AG: I think the city’s actually been pretty good. The Calgary Parking Authority who owns the building have been trying. But they’re obviously not a rental agency so they told us from the beginning that their job is to distribute parking in the city not to rent buildings.
AD: We have more support coming up from the community than we have coming down from the city. I think that’s why people from the outside think that there’s so much support from the city going into the event.
Have you seen a shift since Naheed Nenshi became mayor?
AD: A shift is going to happen. He has a lot of things on his plate and it’s going to be a while before change is going to come to events like this.
Has there been much conflict between the two of you?
AG: We had some issues with personality at the end of last year.
AD: When you work with someone long enough you become a family and I think we entered the fighting stage of our relationship.
AG: And we had never done that before. All through the first year everything was so easy. Then it was fun through most of the second year. And then all of a sudden it hit. We couldn’t work with each other. There was a lot of that competition stuff. And we were tired.
AD: It just built up. It was a lack of communication. There were just little things that built up and we realized that we had to change. And we’re lucky that it did because it really needed to happen.
What would you tell people that were in the same shoes you were three years ago and wanted to start something like collective?
AG: It’s so hard. The city’s going to suck. You’re going to fight. Just abandon it (laughs). I think we would both say almost the same thing. Take the risk. Be passionate about it. Know that you can fail and that it’s all right to.
AD: Just learn along the way. And reach out to people that inspire you and that you can learn from.
Did you ever think it would get this big?
AG: Maybe that’s why it was so good: We just didn’t think about it. We did the first one and we kind of maybe talked about how it would be cool if we did another one but we wanted to do each one at a time and do it well. After about five in we realized that we were no longer working with single events.
What’s your response to people who dismiss collective as being a hipster event?
AG: It’s silly. There’s such a wide range of people who come to Market Collective and if you step into the doors you know that it’s inclusive there’s a huge range of people and it’s non-threatening. We’ve had that a couple of times though.
AD: It’s not that kind of event. Angel and I aren’t hipsters so it’s not like we’re producing something that’s exclusive to hipsters. We wouldn’t be allowed to go.
AG: That’s what we really like about it. There’s tons of hipsters. There’s tons of parents. There’s tons of grandparents. There’s tons of athletes. There’s tons of hippies. There’s tons of musicians. There’s tons of rich people. There’s tons of poor people.
If you could invite any band to play at collective who would it be?
AG: What’s funny is that there’s so many bands I really love but the heartbeat of Market Collective is so local that I don’t even think on those lines. For other things I would be like ‘It would be so sick if we could get Timber Timbre.’ But for Market Collective we look around for the sweetest collection of local stuff we can find. It’s very ingrained into it and I’m sure we could have got a bigger band but it’s just so neat to know everyone.
Do you see yourself connected to collective for an indefinite amount of time?
AD: I think so. It’s such an important part of my personal life. But there’s also times that you grow and move on to other things.
AG: We’re just doing it now passionately.
AD: You just go with stuff. You can’t plan that. You’re just in the moment you’re passionate about it you love it and you go with it.
Do you think that collective could carry on without you?
AD: It could carry on without us if we put our agenda towards training people to take our place. But I don’t know if we would want it to carry on without us. We’re both pretty passionate about it still.
AG: It could easily go on without us because there’s so much support. There’s a lot of people that don’t even know we do it anymore. But we just love doing it.
