Local toy store owners and vendors hope to start a new seasonal market in Prince George.
The Northern BC Toy Expo will welcome the public tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday to a hall full of toys and collectables for kids and adults alike.
“Everybody has been to a craft fair, but this is all toys, all collectables, cards, comics, video games, [and] action figures,” said Mat Walker, one of the expo organizers. “A room full of likeminded folks with a bunch of stuff to sell to likeminded folks who want to buy it.”
He said nearly every other city has a similar event, and it was time for Northern BC to have one of its own.
The expo will have 40 vendors set up in the Kinsmen Hall for the weekend at 11:00 both mornings with a $5 entry fee – or $10 if you want to get in 30 minutes early. Kids 12 and under get in for free.
Based on community interest in the expo, Walker hopes to move on to bigger and better things in the future.
“The idea going forward is we want to do a bigger event,” he explained.
If the event is to run again, Walker hopes to have two sides to the expo – one with vendors from stores, artists, toy companies, and other established businesses, the other set up like a market, where people can bring in their own collections to sell and trade.
“That was the design going into this one,” he said, but demand for spaces will make this year look like more of a mixed bag, with these two categories present and melded together.
All of the vendor spaces are sold out.
For more information on the Northern BC Toy Expo, click here.