Race Day Makers Market 2026!

🚴🏽‍♀️⛷️🏂🏽🚣🏽🏃🏽‍♀️

Bellingham Makers Market is thrilled to announce a brand new market in Fairhaven on Ski to Sea Day! 

🎉🥳🙌🏽🎪

May 24th, 2026 - 11am - 6pm

In conjunction with Evil Bikes and The Landing at Evil Bikes

700 Harris Ave, Bellingham, WA 98225

Why Vendors Will Love This Event:

• 20,000+ people attend the race each year
• Harris Ave closed to traffic = heavy foot traffic
• Located near the gateway to the Marine Park finish line
• Bellingham Makers Market curation and promotion, with Evil Bikes helping to advertise the event
• 
  

For decades, the Fairhaven Festival included a beloved street market during the annual relay race that brings more than 20,000 people to Fairhaven each year. When we heard the street market wouldn’t be happening this year, we reached out to the Fairhaven Association to see if there was a way to help keep a makers market part of the celebration.

After several weeks of behind-the-scenes conversations, everything finally came together - and we are so excited to share that Bellingham Makers Market will be hosting a brand new market in partnership with Evil Bikes.

Our market will take place in the Evil Bikes parking lot and surrounding gravel areas, right along Harris Ave - the main street that leads down to Marine Park where the race finishes.

Even better?
The street will be closed to traffic, meaning thousands of people walking to the finish line will be passing right by the market.

Who should apply for the Race Day Makers Market during Ski to Sea? 

• You’re a handmade maker.
• Your work fits the fun, summery energy of a big Fairhaven festival day.
• You and your booth setup are happy to deal with wind, dust, rain, a longish walk to the vendor parking lot, and all the things that go along with a big outdoor event.
• Note: out of respect for Evil Bikes’ cafe, the Landing, and for the food truck that is regularly in their parking lot, we are not able to accept any coffee sellers. We will consider other food trucks on a case by case basis.  We can accept sellers of packaged foods. Food vendors, if you have questions, feel free to reach out to us before you apply.

Important Dates:

• Application deadline: 03/23/2026
• Notification of application status – either accepted, waitlist, or declined: 04/01/2026
• Vending fees due: 04/08/2026
• As soon as you are accepted, we will send you the insurance requirements. Your certificates of liability with the additional insured will be due by 05/01/2026.
• Vending fees become non-refundable on 05/08/2026, no exceptions.
• Market hours are 11am - 6pm.  
  • Load-in: exact set-up hours will be announced closer to the event but expect approximately 8am - 10am. You will be able to bring your vehicles in during the set-up window.
  • Load-out time: 6pm - Vendors are not permitted to start breaking down before the market closes at 6pm. Any vendors breaking down early will not be accepted in future markets we host.

Other Important Details:

• Application fee: $10 - This is non-refundable and covers our time to review and curate applications.
• Vending fees: 
  • 10 x10 booth - $175
  • 10 x 20 booth (if available) 
• This market is open to handmade makers, artists and artisans. Handmade means that the product was physically created by the seller. Obviously in the process of hand-making our items, all of us use some bought supplies and components. But we want to showcase vendors who are pouring their creative energies into what they sell. If you are the designer, but the manufacturing of the product is outsourced to a third party, please let us know.
• Your business must be registered in WA and you must have a UBI number and be able to collect your own sales tax.
• We believe that having our vendors promote the market is key to bringing the shoppers!  Participating vendors are required to promote the market on their social media at least three out of four designated times. We will email you four different times with a graphic and suggested text for you to post that day or the next day. We will do our part too! We will advertise on local online events calendars, reach out to news sources, put up poster and flyers, and contact our growing list of shoppers who gave us their emails to learn about upcoming markets.
• You must be reachable via email. All notifications and reminders will be sent via email from BMM@bellinghammakersmarket.com. When you fill out the application form, please enter an email address that you check regularly. If you miss a deadline because an email went to your spam, junk or gmail's 'promotions' folder, we will assume that you are no longer interested in participating, and will offer your place to a vendor on the waitlist.
• The booth photo is a required part of your application. We will not consider your application without a booth photo. We want to see your products beautifully displayed in your canopy, with all your signage. If you haven't created a booth photo before, there are lots of tips online. We will be using this photo to help us understand the quantity and variety of products you sell, and to visualize how it will look in a row of booths. Impress us!
• Canopies are required, with 40 pounds of weight per leg. 
• There is electricity available. Please request in the application below if you need it.

This application process is competitive. We are beyond delighted that our little event hosting company has become known for putting on quality markets. Thank you, Bellingham makers, for all the support! But this also means that it is becoming more competitive to get in. Our list of interested vendors continues to grow, with over 2000 on our email list and 5400 followers on Instagram. We value accepting some vendors that are new to us at each market, as well as including vendors who have participated in our past markets. We aim to offer a rich and diverse experience for shoppers at our events, ensuring there is something unique and enjoyable for everyone! 

So please think of your application the way you would think of a job application. You are trying to persuade us with your photos and your written answers why we should select you. Even if you know us personally, please answer as though we don't remember you or your products at all. We want to see by your photos that your products are high quality and that your booth looks professional and that you have plenty of inventory, attractive signage, etc. We have to make a lot of difficult decisions as we go through our curating process. Just because you participated in one of our previous markets is not a guarantee of acceptance. Our focus is to bring together the highest quality experience for shoppers that we can, gathered from all the amazing talent in our area.

In order to help you fill out your application, here are some things that are difficult for us when we are curating. You might be surprised at how many of these things we come across in every batch of applications, and it influences your score. Please double check the details! Here are some common mistakes:

• Typing in an email address or phone number incorrectly
• Not filling in your last name (We need to know your first and last name for insurance purposes).
• Giving us a phone number that can’t receive texts
• Leaving questions blank or answering with just a word or two
• Submitting photos that don’t show products or booth clearly
• Submitting photos in formats other than JPG (please don’t submit .heic, which is the Apple compressed file format)
• Paying the application fee with an account that is not obviously your name or your business name, and forgetting to email us to let us know

Vendors are not grandfathered in because they were accepted to a previous BMM market or because they participated in a previous Fairhaven Festival market. 

 We're so excited to put together an amazing makers market!