Europe’s biggest vintage market comes to Groningen

A visitor browsing at the Fair Priced Vintage Market © Lina Tjarks

Melodic indie sounds greet customers as soon as they enter the factory building. The large space, divided solely by massive concrete pillars, is contrasted by the colourful clothing neatly hung to present itself from its best side for potential future owners. Small groups are chit-chatting and scanning the isles in hopes of finding new personal favourite items with a unique backstory. A bar invites people to sit down and relax after scavenging through the endless rows of all sorts of clothing.

Starting this week, for two days only, Fair Priced Vintage, the biggest vintage market in Europe, is opening its doors at Groningen's Sugar Terrain (Suikerterrein). The market moves from location to location all over Europe and will be in the city until the end of today.

The market inside the the old factory © Lina Tjarks

While the event is ongoing, Marilyn van Schelt, a volunteer working at the Fair Priced Vintage market, already considers it to be a success. "It has been going really well, and there are still time slots being reserved for the event throughout the day as well", she tells The Glass Room. However, she says that the expectations were different for this edition of the market, due to the fact that the event is held during the week and not over the weekend.

Jet Burema, a visitor of the pop-up event, tells The Glass Room that she was positively surprised that something out of the ordinary was happening during the week. "My boyfriend saw the advertisement on Instagram, saved us spots after work, and here we are", she says.

Over the past decades, the secondhand and vintage clothing industry has grown exponentially globally and is expected to keep growing, according to recent studies. Considering the rising costs of living and the value of the personal luxury goods market, which has more than quadrupled in the last 25 years worldwide, many consumers have turned to buying pre-owned clothes.

Marilyn says what sets the event apart is that it offers vintage clothing at actual secondhand prices. "Shops that resell clothes are now also becoming more and more expensive, which is kind of the opposite of why they were set up in the first place", she says.

However, she also acknowledges that the vintage market remains within a particular demographic, and most people who heard about the event are likely to already be interested in buying vintage clothes.

The reliance on social media advertisement indicates younger generations as the target group for the event. This aligns with the fact that recent studies have shown that Generation Z especially sees a benefit in buying used clothing items, which decreases spending and creates more sustainable habits.

While it is Jet's first time at a Fair Priced Vintage event, she is indeed also familiar with buying secondhand and vintage clothing. "I think 70% of my clothes are secondhand. And for January, I challenged myself to avoid buying anything new at all", Jet says.

However, Jet's motivation is not necessarily rooted in financial reasoning. "It's good for the environment. And I think there are enough clothes made to shop secondhand", Jet says.

Another reason why she enjoys this way of shopping, Jet mentions, is the diversity of styles and detachment from current trends in fast fashion when shopping secondhand. "You have to take time and look at every single item. You cannot just walk in with certain expectations of what to buy, which makes finding something you love more special," she says.