Organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from its Portuguese acronym), the Tap Siac Craft Market is held from 15 to 17 November and from 22 to 24 November at Tap Siac Square. The Craft Market features a diversity of cultural and creative activities including cultural and creative booths, handicraft workshops, music performances and creative food stalls. All are welcome to participate and experience the creative power of different regions.
The opening ceremony of the “Tap Siac Craft Market” was held on 15 November at 6pm at Tap Siac Square and was officiated by the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Mok Ian Ian; the Acting President of the Administrative Committee of the Cultural Industries Fund, Chu Miu Lai; the Vice President of the Committee of Cultural Industries, Hsu Hsiu-Chu; the Chief of the Division of Cultural, Recreational and Association Affairs of the Department of Cultural and Recreational Affairs and Civic Education of the Municipal Affairs Bureau, Au Chan Weng; the Supervisor of the Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, Wong Mei Ling; Designer of CAMPOBAG in Taiwan, Tsai Yi Ting; and the Project Manager of Go! Freelancers from Guangzhou, Sarah Nie; and the Representative of Artroad in Korea, Duri Lee.
The President of IC, Mok Ian Ian, referred in her speech that the “Tap Siac Craft Market” has become the largest platform in Macao for displaying and selling cultural and creative products since its inception in 2008, thus gathering cultural and art practitioners from different regions for creative ideas and exchanges, fostering cultural integration and offering a rich cultural feast to residents and tourists. IC hopes to develop the Craft Market into a signature cultural and creative event in the Greater Bay Area and even in Asia, highlighting the cultural image of Macao as the city with Chinese culture being the mainstream and other different cultures flourishing in harmony.
The “Tap Siac Craft Market” features a total of 220 booths by cultural and art practitioners from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, displaying and selling distinctive creative products. In addition, the Craft Market offers 41 creative handicrafts workshops and 37 music performances by singer-songwriters from Mainland China, Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan; a session dedicated to Macao original songs is specially staged during the event, in which selected candidates from IC’s “Subsidy Programme for the Production of Original Song Albums” over the past years are invited to present their original songs.
The “Tap Siac Craft Market” is open from 5pm to 10pm on Fridays and from 3pm to 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, please visit the “Tap Siac Craft Market” website (www.craftmarket.gov.mo), the “Macao Craft Market” page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MacaoCraftMarket) or the IC website (www.icm.gov.mo). For enquiries please contact Ms. Zhou, staff member of IC, at (853) 8399 6289 during office hours.