Stalya Food Market

The marketplace is bustling as I walk through, the city's streets having been closed off for the week to accommodate the market. There are all manner of exotic sights and I honestly can't keep focus on one for more than a few seconds - a woman breathes fire on the street corner to adoring children, a vendor cries "Best mosscurd! Best price!" as he holds up a jug of a gluggy greenish liquid, a boy on stilts walks down the street with 4 apples balanced on his head, followed by a rolling watermelon being pushed by a small girl screaming with delight. The stalls line the streets, under their garish red, yellow, and green tarpaulins, and the smells of food combine until there is almost no smell any more, just a milieu of scent that blends with the street.

History

The Stalya food market was begun in the early days of the city's growing trading industry as a way to ensure stability of demand for traders who passed through the city. Originally lasting just one day, tales of the profit that the traders made from each other and from Stalya's citizens sped throughout Mythia and each year more and more traders came in search of fortune to the market. The single day turned into two, and then four. Citizens began putting on performances at the market to complement the stalls, and even non-traders came to Stalya to participate. The event was declared a public holiday in Stalya by Lord Inara in the late 5th century and has grown since then into the week-long celebration present today.

Execution

The Stalya food market is officially opened each year by the current ruler of the surrounding lands and the chief of the city, and from this point on the main streets of the city are closed to ensure the free movement of traders, tourists, and revelers.  The market typically begins trading at midday on the first day and does not cease until midnight on the last day.  People often withdraw a substantial amount of their savings to buy from the market and its common to stay up for days at a time.  Fireworks and other such things are let off in the evenings, and different nights bring different events every year - sometimes there are events dedicated to specific types of food, occasionally Thespians will perform, and on vary rare occasions nobles or particularly well-off merchants will grant all the participants a small sum of money.

Participants

The main body of people attending the food market are the traders, peddling all kinds of wares from the exotic to the mundane. They typically arrive in the town a day before the beginning of the festival to find accommodation and begin setting up their stalls.
Other tourists arrive in the town as the festival begins and continue to do so, typically, right up until the final day. The pull of the market is so great that people travel from all over Mythia to attend it. The citizens of Stalya, naturally, are already in attendance and many stay at the market for days at a time, not returning home to eat or sleep.

Observance

The Stalya food market begins on the first day of the 7th month and runs until the 7th day.