November 10, 2022
Courtesy/ISA/Then and Now Marketplace
The old Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company factory will come alive again with local music, food and vendors on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The event is presented by Meantime, which takes over abandoned commercial spaces for community events.
Ever wonder what happens to old buildings after businesses shut down or move on and they sit empty? A local group has been working to utilize those spaces while they're in between tenants.
Now and Then Marketplace and architecture studio ISA partnered to create the Meantime organization. Meantime works to breathe new life into commercial spaces in urban communities in Philadelphia by putting together cultural events that bring neighborhoods together.
On Saturday, Nov. 12, Meantime will host Velocities, an event at the former Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company factory at 4750 James St. in Frankford.
From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the free event will feature food, non-alcoholic drinks, workshops, live music and a synth swap meet where people can buy, sell and trade music memorabilia, vinyl records, merchandise and gear. In addition, the event will feature 40 local vendors and food trucks.
Steph Irwin, a local event planner who works with Now and Then, described the event as a showcase of analog culture. Irwin said that she and her partners began wondering why all these commercial properties remain unused, and schemed up ways they could get people in them while they sat on the market.
"So it's something that we've been trying to do, and we've been doing these events and activations along the way, to just show people that this is a real thing, that this can also be replicated throughout Philadelphia," Irwin said. "And it benefits the people that own the space, the realty agents, because in a way, it's also kind of guerrilla marketing, right? Because you're getting people."
The event on Saturday will take over two floors of the empty factory. The first floor will hold the Now and Then Marketplace from 11 a.m.to 5 p.m., where local vendors will be set up.
From noon until 2 p.m., Iffy Books will hold a solar circuit bending workshop. During that workshop, people can learn how to create solar-powered musical instruments.
Sound Museum Collective will conduct another workshop on video synthesis. During that workshop, people will learn how to create video signals without camera input through video pattern generators.
On the second floor, attendees can listen to the sounds of Modular on the Spot. The collective of 10 performers will play modular sounds from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. via modular synthesizer machines. The four main performers playing on the quadraphonic sound system will include draft/pitch/weave, Phil Yeah, Tina Kalakay and Chris Powell from 5 p.m. until the end of the event at 7 p.m.
The Synth Swap Meet will take place on the first floor from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
This is not the first event Irwin and her partners have collaborated on. Earlier this year, Now and Then turned an old Dollar Tree in Fishtown into a pop-up marketplace with over 50 vendors.
"I do this a lot with the Now and Then Marketplace," Irwin said. "Catching these spaces when they're in flux, you know, when they're empty and [don't] have any use. We wanted to catch this space."
