Brooklyn Night Bazaar to Open in Greenpoint This Weekend So You Can Shop and Drink All Night and Say It Was Because of the Holidays

By Lauren Beck

A sneak peek at the Bazaar’s new digs in Greenpoint. Notice the really cool lights. Photos by Austin McAllister

Good news for anyone who takes smug pleasure in letting the world know they’ve completed their holiday shopping well in advance of Christmas Eve and hates sleep. This Friday marks the return of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, a no-longer-pop-up shop housing 100 local vendors as they peddle your silkscreened, découpaged and knitted holiday needs under the warm glow of funky lights and the din of well-curated live music. It’s Etsy, but in 3-D. With more bustle (the idea stemmed from the lively street markets of Asia). And beer and wine (there’s more than one bar). At nighttime.

After a four-night sprint in 2011, which turned into a five-weekend run last year, the Bazaar sees its biggest expansion yet, becoming a year-round weekend fixture, complete with new digs at 165 Banker Street in Greenpoint. After scoping out locations throughout the borough (a former horse stable on Atlantic Avenue and a warehouse along the Gowanus Canal among the top contenders), founders Aaron Broudo and Belvy Klein landed on the jackpot: a 24,000 square-foot space shared by a pretzel factory by day — it smells really good, take our word for it — surrounded by non-residential blocks to lessen the worry of waking up the neighbors.

Because Brooklyn is the place where dreams come true, they’ve made room for indoor mini golf, ping-pong tables, and nearly 20 local food vendors, including Lobster Joint, BrisketTown, Morris Grilled Cheese and Oaxaca. There’s Wi-Fi too, if you feel the need to do work at 11pm on a Saturday or an immediate urgency to spread holiday cheer via e-cards. Did we mention the promise of outdoor beer gardens come summer? We can’t wait for summer.

To hold us over, each weekend of the Bazaar will be soundtracked by live performances from local bands and beyond, curated by people who are generally very good at this sort of thing: BuzzFeed, Paste Magazine, Insound, Le Poisson Rouge, Scenic, MyFreeConcert.com and Flavorpill are a few on the docket, responsible for ushering in the likes of Spank Rock, Frankie Rose, Kitty (as in ex-Pryde), A Place to Bury Strangers, Small Black, and an one-off from psych-pop Londoners Splashh within the next few weeks. Let it be known that without the vendors, the space holds 1,800 people, making it Brooklyn’s second-largest music venue only after Barclays Center. What that could mean for future shows is something to be excited about, even if shopping, eating, drinking, playing ping-pong, surfing the web, wearing sweaters or getting in the holiday spirit isn’t your thing.