The Queens International Night Market is a large, family-friendly open-air night market in Queens, featuring independent vendors selling merchandise, art, and food and featuring small-scale cultural performances and entertainment, all celebrating the rich cultural diversity and heritage of NYC and Queens.
When: Saturdays, 6PM-Midnight, starting on April 23rd until August 20th
Where: New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Info: http://queensnightmarket.com/
Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets. Night markets are popular in Asian culture; they can be found especially common in East and Southeast Asia; from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau,Korea, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia to the Philippines. Nevertheless, night markets are more prominent within ethnic Chinese economic and cultural activities. Some well-known night markets exist in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok, but they also exist in Chinatowns worldwide.
As night market becomes more well known, however, often it is looked upon more positively and the daytime stores adjust. The daytime stores then stay open later, because there are now customers at night when previously there wouldn’t be. Night markets can increase profitability and often bring secondary type of consumers that are different from the daytime consumers. For example, a daytime store may normally sell herbs. At night, that same daytime store may now change its wares to include iced grass jelly and honey tea; this second item caters towards the teenage and early-twenties crowd, which is the majority of night market customers.
Source: Wikipedia
John Wang is the Founder of Queens Night Market. John received his bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan, and his JD and MBA degrees from Yale University. After spending a few years practicing corporate law in Manhattan, he most embarked on a quest to start the Queens International Night Market. Despite being only in its second year, the event draws over 8,000 people on a nightly basis and has come to be overwhelmingly embraced by the local communities and stakeholders, despite much early resistance. As the only employee of the company, he handles every aspect of creating and running the Night Market, from PR to fundraising, from daily operations (including setup and breakdown) to long-term strategic planning.