The Teenage Market gives young people a free platform to showcase their creative talents. It’s all about supporting the next generation of market traders and bringing an influx of energy, vibrancy and diversity to towns across the UK. Our events are the perfect opportunity for markets to connect with their town’s population of young people, by providing a platform for them to be entrepreneurial, trial new business ideas and sell creative products.

As well as a creative retail offer, a really important part of our Teenage Market events is performance. Whether it's young bands, dancers, musicians or stand-up comedians, our events are an amazing opportunity for young performers to showcase their creative talents in the heart of their town or city. The events are also great for large, local community groups to showcase their unique skills and talents, who also bring along friends and family for support.

When combined, the creative fusion of specialist retail and live performance creates a thriving and bustling marketplace which succeeds in attracting a new generation of shoppers and visitors to our nation's local markets. Our Teenage Market events have proven that giving a free platform to aspiring young entrepreneurs and performers can transform our town and city centres, animate our high streets and revitalise our local markets.

The Teenage Market was created when teenage brothers Tom and Joe Barratt decided that there should be a specialist market designed specifically for the large population of young people in their hometown of Stockport. They put the call out for young traders and performers to be part of their event and were overwhelmed when hundreds of young people applied to take part in their first Teenage Market event on Sunday April 1st 2012.

The concept of The Teenage Market immediately captured people’s imaginations and became an instant hit with young people in the North West. The events quickly gained local, regional and national media attention and received online backing and support from star of 'Dragon's Den' Hilary Devey, runner-up of 'The Apprentice' Claire Young and the 'Queen of Shops' Mary Portas, who has described The Teenage Market as ‘game-changing’.

After the success of their first event, the local business community quickly recognised that The Teenage Market could play a big part in the town’s regeneration strategy and, as a result, Tom and Joe were awarded funding from Stockport Council’s Business Challenge Fund to further develop the idea. Since then, the brothers have been working with local councils to expand The Teenage Market all across the country.

The Teenage Market is now running in over thirty locations across the UK, giving local young people the chance to actively engage and take part in events in their town or city. The positive benefits that towns and cities have experienced as a result of running the events have been incredibly positive and far-reaching. They include a rise in footfall, an increase in spend in the local area and a rise in new people coming to visit their local market.

One of the main benefits of running Teenage Market events is that they are a great way of attracting the next generation of market traders. With over 70% of market traders now over the age of 50, it's more important than ever to identify younger traders for the future prosperity of the markets industry. Our events have proven that they're a great way of doing exactly that, with thousands of young people taking part in events all across the UK.

Our events have proven incredibly effective at gaining local, regional and national media coverage with many local councils benefitting from positive news stories as a result. The Teenage Market has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent, This Is Money, ITV News, Sky News and BBC News. We've also appeared on the One Show, as part of a special feature on young entrepreneurs with Dragon's Den star and businessman Theo Paphitis.