A monthly Filipino-themed night market called Undiscovered SF is debuting in the Old Mint building tonight. Undiscovered will take place from 6pm to midnight on the third Friday of the month and feature a changing array of Filipino businesses, food, fashion, craft vendors, dance and music. Opening night of the market will feature Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born and musician Low Leaf.
Produced by Kultivate Labs, the non-profit accelerator from the Filipino American Development Association, the market will be a way for Bay Area residents to discover San Francisco through the lens of the Filipino diaspora.
"In Asia, night markets are a vibrant social scene that brings people together from all walks of life to eat, shop, and socialize,"Desi Danganan, executive producer of Kultivate Labs, explained to the Chronicle. "We wanted to bring this energy to San Francisco and add a Filipino-American twist."
In fact, the market's website promises to "unveil to the world the culture of Filipino-Americans (and beyond) involved in music, visual arts, fashion, design, retail, food, technology, social activism and health and wellness."
Attendees can expect to roam all 94,000-square-feet and two floors of the Mint. Undiscovered plans to embrace the neighborhood's tech start-up atmosphere with virtual reality rooms, film screenings, and DJs as well as offer some serious food options including the likes of the Lumpia Company, Frozen Kuhsterd, Sataysfied and Alchemy.
The market's Indigogo page offers packages beginning at $20, which gets the ticket-holder $10 towards goods at the market and an express entry pin to skip the registration line at every market going forward.
This night market could be the first step in creating a brand new cultural district in SoMa. We're definitely excited to see what the future holds for the neighborhood surrounding the Old Mint but in the meantime, pass the lumpia.
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