Personally

I’m hoping (praying, begging…) that our building work gets back underway BEFORE the Autumn as I’m looking forward to a new study, even if it will mean sharing it with Dave.  That will also mean that the turntables and vinyl collection will be more accessible to all so it’s going to be a music extravaganza.

Professionally

The plan is to expand and grow Saltaire Handmade,, our monthly showcase for local craft, art, photography and much more.  It’s been great to see this grow and grow and there is so much I want to buy each month.  Remember that we are always interested in hearing of other venues where we can promote local artists so get in touch if you want to discuss – just ask for Dave though ;-D

The diary is getting busy with music and entertainment bookings, lots of weddings, balls and other lovely events.  Had some interesting requests for specific type of performers, which is keeping us on our toes, but it all adds variety.  We’ve been checking out some new bands as we want to give our clients a wide selection of performers.

There are also some plans afoot that are very exciting, but I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment – keep tuned for more information in coming weeks by following us on either Facebook or Twitter.

As the Cranberries once said, everybody else is doing it, so why can’t we? Been meaning to get more regular with our news and we’ve long had the functionality built in to the website so, new(ish) year and new(ish) HTG-stuff. We’ve some exciting (and pretty new and different) plans in the bag so what better way than so bother you pretty much every day with blahblah-this and blahblah-that…

Where we’re at, right now, January 2012…

Our biggest thing at the moment is Saltaire Handmade, launched in October last year it’s a monthly designer-maker event that showcases the best of local craft, art, photography and more. Ever mindful of putting together a proper ‘show’, one of our most important criteria is to make Saltaire Handmade different from one month to the next with different traders, different background tunes and anything else we can do to make this artisan-led event stand out from the rest.

After 3 successful months in the lower rooms at Saltaire URC we’re moving onwards and quite literally upwards – just up the road to Caroline Social Club from this month. This is a perfect fit for the event as Saltaire Handmade is deliberately timed on the 3rd Saturday every month to coincide with the Farmers’ Market on the same day right next door on Caroline Street car park.

So what’s in store for Saltaire Handmade on 18th February? Couple of teasers for you with more to come later – some fabulous and creative work from up and coming local photographer Andrew Holland – check out the website for some amazing images of familiar local landmarks and much more. Also coming in February – the varied and eclectic work of Handmade by Chez – ‘from girlie to gothic and pretty to punky’!

Anything else to tell…?

Well, you might not realise we do a bit of HTG-DJing and HTG-music-related stuff as well as the HTG-events we do and we’ll have a few announcements on that score very soon. Bit of music, variety and some new and regular local nights if all goes according to cunning plans being hatched as we speak. In the meantime, if you have a problem only a DJ can solve, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…HTG Events

Saltaire Christmas Market at Victoria Hall on 4th December is now sold out and even bigger than it was before! We’ve added a third room of fab festive stalls to the event so it really does promise to have almost everything you need for Christmas treats and gifts under one roof!

Everything from baubles, bangles and beads to festive food and drink and everything in between!

We have a lovely Café with a range of hot and cold drinks and wonderfully tasty cakes and snacks too!

Open from 11am til 4pm

FREE ENTRY

For all enquiries – contact Dave at HTG Events on 07764 746634, 01274 588759 or enquiries@htgevents.com

Drop us a line for latest availability and we’ll let you know ASAP if we can accommodate you.

Saltaire Christmas Market at Victoria Hall on 4th December is very nearly sold out – if you believe you may have a provisional space pencilled in – GET IN TOUCH NOW! We’ll be emailing you separately but the only way to secure your spot is with payment NOW – either in full or with £10 down and balance (cleared) due no later than 2 weeks before.

For all enquiries – contact Dave Glenister at HTG Events on 07764 746634, 01274 588759 or enquiries@htgevents.com

For now though let’s focus on ‘Saltaire Handmade’. A slight departure for HTG Events as it’s our first 100% handmade Craft Fair – we’ve obviously always had a very high proportion of handmade before but our number one priority has always been (and still is!) to bang the LOCAL drum. So now we’re going one better – Local and Handmade!

It’s also fantastic that in launching these new events we’ve been given the opportunity to use the lower rooms in the fabulous Saltaire United Reformed Church. For those that aren’t already aware, this is the iconic church built by Titus Salt at the heart of Saltaire village in 1859 and is also Titus’ final resting place. To be given the opportunity to host our Events in this wonderful example of Saltaire’s heritage as well as the knowledge that all our venue fees will go directly to its upkeep and maintenance is truly a privilege and also fits perfectly with our ‘Local’ ethos.

The timing of Saltaire Handmade is quite deliberate – the 3rd Saturday of every month from 10am until 3pm – timed to coincide with the wonderful Saltaire Farmers’ Market just up the road in Caroline Street car park. We’ve long been supporters of the Farmers’ Market and if our Event can benefit it, and vice-versa then so much the better! Once again, keeping it LOCAL!!

The very first Saltaire Handmade will be on 15th October and we’ll be out and about during Saltaire Festival next week and going door to door to spread the word with some fab new flyers courtesy of The Prosider.

For all enquiries – contact Dave Glenister at HTG Events on 07764 746634, 01274 588759 or enquiries@htgevents.com

Well what a fantastic year 2010 was for HTG Events – we achieved everything we set out to and then a little bit more! Still much more to achieve for 2011 and beyond but we thought it’d be good to have a bit of a ‘that was the year that was’ and ‘this is the year that will be’! Read on…

In March we hosted the first ever Wedding Fair at the splendid Victoria Hall in Saltaire – held over 2 days the Event was hailed as a great success with all suppliers reporting good business both over the weekend and since. Many new business relationships were forged that weekend with new suppliers, photographers, caterers etc and old friends of both HTG Events and Victoria Hall were there too. The Hall did very well over the weekend in raising its profile, not least of which due to the fabulous prize draw being run to win your own Saltaire Wedding Package. The lucky winners Ruth and Tom were married in November and HTG Events had great pleasure in providing the Entertainment for such a lovely couple’s Wedding.

Throughout 2010, HTG Events hosted a series of Charity Craft Markets, again at Victoria Hall in Saltaire. The three Craft Markets were all in aid of the Bradford City Burns Unit, a very relevant local charity that was marking the 25th Anniversary of the Valley Parade fire disaster by launching a new appeal to raise at least £100,000 in order that the Unit be able to keep functioning. HTG Events set its own target to raise £2010 in 2010 for the Burns Unit and did this by donating every penny of profit/proceeds from the three Events directly to the Appeal. A total of £3053 was in fact raised.

Our Craft Markets in 2010 were a great success in their own right – we made a lot of fantastic new friends and our ethos of showcasing local traders in local venues has gone from strength to strength and we’re thrilled to be starting to see some real effects in and around Saltaire. Two of our traders Pudsey Pickles and Daisy Bank Food are now being stocked in Cheese and Chutney of Saltaire. As a result of reading one of our blog posts about a fabulous chef’s knife from Cheese and Chutney, the proprietor of The Butterfly Rooms then nipped along Gordon Terrace and bought one as a Christmas present! And so it goes on…pay it forward!

We’ve also had some fabulous feedback from visitors and traders alike, far too much to list here but one that really meant a lot to us was from local Saltaire artist David Starley – ‘Congratulations on your thoughtful organising of this event, not to mention advertising in the local area, two things that are sadly lacking from most Art/craft fairs I’ve taken part in’

We’ve been privileged to have provided the Entertainment at a fantastic range of functions in 2010 – from kicking the year off at the Saltaire New Year Party for Bradford and Bingley RFC, through too many Weddings to mention, a fabulous 50th and an utterly brilliant 80s-themed 30th in Leeds City Centre, the host and birthday-boy being a most excellent Teen Wolf!

So what does 2011 have in store? More of the same, definitely – it’s clearly not broke so why fix it?! Our Saltaire Craft Markets have already been rolled out – see Our Events for more details. Many more Events and more venues to come too – we’re currently looking and negotiating in great locations like Otley, Headingley, Hebden Bridge, Halifax and Haworth to name a few but we never forget that Saltaire is where our home and where our heart is. Seriously folks – watch this space – exciting stuff!

Just remains for us to thank a few people without whom 2010 wouldn’t have been what it was and with whom 2011 will be ace! Saltaire Village Info, The Sentinel, Victoria Hall, The Salt Foundation and Shipley College, Hannah Baker, Jim Greehalf and all at the T&A, Bradford City Football Club, the vast array of local traders, businesses, artists and craftspeople we’ve been able to showcase and that in turn have supported HTG Events – too numerous to mention but you know who you are! And a final thank you to all the visitors new and old to all the events that we’ve hosted and been involved with. See you all again in 2011!

Any queries or comments? Contact HTG Events on 07764 746634, 01274 588759 or enquiries@htgevents.com

The Bradford Burns Unit is a vital research centre that faced closure unless it could raise £100,000 and Bradford City FC along with the Telegraph & Argus launched an appeal in 2010 to help raise that sum. The Burns Unit is a research centre that has been at the centre of pioneering new ways to treat burns.

The Burns Unit was set up at Bradford University following the 1985 Bradford fire disaster at Valley Parade which killed 56 people and injured over 190. Since then it has done great work in finding new ways to treat burns through plastic surgery and research. The pioneering unit stands as a legacy to what happened on May 11th 1985.

The Bradford Burns Unit was set up by Professor David Sharpe who had been a consultant plastic surgeon for only five months when he was called to treat burns victims from the fire disaster at Valley Parade. He received an OBE for his work.

HTG Events have been raising money throughout 2010 for the Burns Unit – donations can be made direct to the Bradford Burns Unit via our JustGiving page.

We made two new friends at our last Saltaire Craft Market, sisters Bron and Lissie who make up Through The Cottage Door – purveyors of beautiful and unique shabby chic treats, gifts and homewares. They put together a great display on the day and we hope they did well both then and with enquiries and sales after the event.

They provide their customers with an enjoyable and relaxing shopping experience from the comfort of their own home – pour yourself a glass of wine, settle into your favourite armchair and avoid the queues and crowds of the city whilst browsing through their extensive range of carefully chosen products, from vintage-style kitchen and garden accessories to stylish country cottage furniture. They aim to provide an enjoyable and relaxing shopping experience to every customer. Bron and Lissie have a shared passion for stunning home décor and rustic, traditional style and are both dedicated to delivering great customer service.

HTG Events are delighted that Through The Cottage Door are donating one of their extra large vintage-style wall clocks to our Bradford City Burns Unit Raffle at our upcoming Christmas Gift Fair at Yo Yo. Through the Cottage Door opened in September 2010 and is based in West Yorkshire.

The HTG Events Christmas Craft Market on 21st November was a great success all round with the vast majority of traders reporting brisk business and a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.

‘Congratulations on your thoughtful organising of this event, not to mention advertising in the local area. Two things that are sadly lacking from most Art/craft fairs I’ve taken part in’

‘…thank you for making my first craft fair go so smoothly and successfully…I definitely will be booking again’

‘Following a very successful day yesterday I would like to be considered if any space becomes available for the December Fair’

So – a few of our favourites from the day? Special mention must go to a new trader for HTG Events – Quernus Crafts – the wee creatures are going from strength to strength and cute to cuter! Winning awards and accolades all over, we’re really hoping Quernus will be able to be at our upcoming Christmas Gift Fair at Yo Yo on 9th December. Kirsten is also a delight and shares some of HTG’s ethos to what we try to do in that it’s more than just what you do and where you are but how you get there and enjoying yourself along the way – the vibe, the craic, the buzz you get from the stuff that nobody but you probably notices…ok I’ll stop now…

Lesley and Soap Monkey were an absolute delight – not only new to HTG Events but this was their first event too. When we did the rounds halfway through, Lesley was really pleased with the high level of trade she’d already done – when we came round nearer the finish she was over the moon! HTG always love making friends with new traders so we’re thrilled to say Soap Market have been invited to stand at our Yo Yo event on 9th December!

On a sadder note, we learned on Sunday of the recent passing of Greg Moore, a regular face at HTG Events’ Craft Markets over the last couple of years. We’re in awe of the fact that Greg’s brother, Brian was still in attendance with his wonderful baked goods, pickles and especially for this Market and the one on 12th December – that fabulous mulled wine! Brian wasn’t kidding when he said the pickled onions and piccalilli (both made by Greg) were fierce – WOW!! I had a ham sandwich with the piccalilli earlier and panicked when I saw 2 spilt blobs of virulent yellow on my white t-shirt! I kind of like to think Greg would be chuckling at that…

Rest in peace, Greg x

Emma Birrell has been a regular supplier and a great supporter of HTG Events throughout 2010, and we hope – well beyond!

For those who don’t already know, Emma and Phoenix offer two great opportunities to customers. The first and most obvious is the ‘one-stop-shop’ nature of what Emma sells – you truly can make one visit to Emma either online or in person at our Christmas Craft Market and come away with all your cards, wrapping and tags for Christmas…and the rest of the year as well!! Here at HTG Towers we’re particularly loving the Advent Calendar Cards – soooo cute!!

The other, less obvious opportunity is that you can actually get involved and become a Phoenix Trader yourself as part of Emma’s team – contact Emma for details.

All event enquiries to enquiries@htgevents.com or by phone 01274 588759 or 07764 746634