The Riga Central Market welcomes you to the Harvest Festival celebrations which are to take place following the ancient Latvian traditions on Miķeļi Day – Saturday, 27 September 2014 from 11 AM to 2 PM. There is also the Miķeļi Day Fair to be held at the Central Market on 26 and 27 September.

“It is hard to imagine a more appropriate place than the Central Market to hold the Harvest Festival celebrations in Riga. This is where all the goodies from the Latvian countryside come together, and September is the month when the Central Market can offer the biggest range of Latvia-grown fruit and vegetables. Everyone, big and small, is welcome to the Central Market on Saturday to enjoy a leisurely shopping and join in the festivities,” Anatolijs Abramovs, Chairman of the Board of Riga Municipality JSC Riga Central Market, tells.

Families with children are welcome to participate in the autumn bounty workshop, where everyone will have the opportunity to make their own lucky charm from a variety of autumn gifts of nature. All the created charms will be put on display and entered into the competition, and the best authors will receive awards.

The harvest postcard workshop will offer a chance for anyone to design a special Central Market harvest postcard which may turn into a real Central Market postcard. The most creative visitors will surely enjoy the making and painting of large-scale vegetables.

The event will also include a traditional blind tasting to find out the most palatable bread. The Central Market’s Gourmet Club encourages everyone to share their special recipes for preserving the autumn harvest for the winter months. Vineta Āboliņa, the chef of the cookery master class Pumpkin in the Kitchen and taste consultant, together with the young cooks from Ventspils Vocational Secondary School will show the visitors a variety of ways the pumpkin can be prepared.

The Harvest Festival is impossible to do without having fun, so we will hold agility contests to determine the fastest potato peeler, the most skilled carrot peeler and the strongest pumpkin carrier.

The venue for the Harvest Festival will be Nēģu Square of the Central Market. If the weather does not cooperate, the festivities will be held indoors, in the Vegetable Pavilion.

All activities during the event will be free of charge. Enjoy your shopping and join in the festivities to celebrate the harvest in a fun and creative way!

See you in the most colourful place in the city – the Riga Central Market!