Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association

I attended couple of events at this location and found it nice for holding small cultural or social events. This place has couple of rooms to accommodate events of small as well as medium size. Parking is not an issue with ample of space in and around.
This place is very well connected from Downtown, SW, NW through 14^th street and 16^th Avenue NW.

Sure, the building is fairly old, but HSCA seems to be well-​maintained and clean. I’ve been here a couple of times, and even though the atmosphere is high school gymnasium-​esque, the ladies room is sparkling and doesn’t have graffiti about that one guy that dated all your friends behind your back.
Parking is ample, and during the evenings and weekends, is free if you have to to park on the street.

Went to this place for the first time to attend a Unilocal dance party, and was surprised by the size of the main event venue and the adjoining space. The men’s washroom was clean, bright, and odour-​free. Considering the age of the building, it appeared to be well-​maintained. How it is that I’ve never visited this place before even though I’ve lived in Calgary for 27 years?

Review #1 of Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge 2012
Hillhurst-​Sunnyside… what to say about you? Your hall rocks. I’ve been there for a few indoor markets and for the farmers market in the summer. And events too!
As far as facilities go, there’s a good amount of space if you’re using the whole place. There’s the main area with kitchen and coat room attached (I say coat room, but it’s more like a green room I guess? It’s a fair size) and then a small-​ish banquet room, with I do believe another kitchen. No gaudy carpets or weird wall colours to try and work around. And the building is in good repair too. If you’re planning an event, it’s pretty easy to make this space look awesome.
Farmers market wise, it’s not a large market, maybe 30 vendors total. But if you live in the area, it’s a great place to stop and grab some fresh produce… or sneak a treat from Ice Cream Anarchy. Too bad the snow chases the market away!
But when there is snow, come on in for the winter market… it’s the first Wednesday of every month. Even better, runs 4−7pm. The website says the flea market is still going down every Sunday as well.
So. plenty to do and see! Go Hillhurst/​Sunnyside!

As I drove through Kensington in a cold crisp Autumn morning, my mind was far from the calm, collected, and geared mind of an athlete. Instead I was nervous, annoyed, and needed a new pair of underwear. It was competition day.
Still, finding this community center in the maze of Kensington Calgary was a cinch. There were certainly a lot of people in the area that day, and I gotta admit that Hillhurst Community offers great space for venues and events. Gracie Barra has held two tournaments in this hall and the center has been accommodating and fair with pricing. They provided chairs and clean up materials, as well as access to their stock room in case we needed anything else. The washrooms we accessible as well as entrances were easy to find.
Parking space that might dip into the streets of Kensington, but you’ll have to fill up the large backlot first.
At the end of the day, we managed to pack everything up and had great access to the back doors of the gymnasium. And how’d I do? I don’t wanna talk about it.
³⁄₃₀

The Hillhurst-​Sunnyside Community Association runs an indoor flea market every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
I have participated in this flea market as both a shopper and a vendor, and I am happy to share my thoughts as both.
As a shopper, i was shocked at the size of it. When I first arrived and looked around, there had to be 50+ vendors around this gymnasium. Just when I thought I saw it all, I found out there were three large rooms with MORE vendors. So if you go, keep wandering. There is definately more than simply that one big area.
This is definately more of a flea market with plenty of bric a brac, as opposed to an artizan market such as the Calgary Farmer’s Market, so be prepared for an indoor garage sale-​type scenario. I got some fantastic deals on CDs and second hand books, so I was quite a happy little shopper. I also bought a pair of gorgeous earrings for $ 2. Seriously!
There was one kiosk in there that made falafels that was delicous. :) I don’t know if this lady is there every week, but she was worth every penny.
As a vendor, the price was definately right. A table is $ 25. However, admittedly it is tough to get space there, since it is so busy. I was lucky enough to secure two tables for $ 50, so I actually had some room to display some clothing I was selling to raise money for the Giver for Liver Marathon.
.
Since the crowd was such bargain hunters, I didn’t have much choice but to price my wares accordingly, therefore, making it difficult to do exceedingly well profit-​wise. I know for certain there are many vendors that do very well there, but for me, with second hand clothing, it was a challenge. An item I would sell on kijiji for $ 10, I had to sell for $ 5, and more often than not, I would get haggled to $ 2. The vendor across from me dropped his prices all day and gave away all of his product for free in the last hour, which made it extremely hard for me to compete with free.
I did exhibit in January where customer traffic was slower, so I may give this another kick at the can in the spring and update my review. However, my experience with the post-​Christmas traffic was not a lot of profit for a nine hour day. I tried for two weekends. The first weekend, I didn’t make my table (sold $ 40 worth of items, and the two tables were $ 50). The second week, I walked away with $ 55, so I had a much better sales day, but when I divide $ 55 by 9 hours, the charity only made $ 6.11 per hour. Much less than minimum wage.
However, I spoke to many vendors around me, and many of them have been exhibiting there for years and have been profitable, selling antiquey-​type housewares or books. So, it may simply be my product line (which was second hand clothing) or possibly my display, or other factors directly related to me.
However, dealing with the community center was an absolute pleasure. Bonnie was extremely helpful and all the vendors I interacted with were a pleasure to deal with.