Visitors to Plymouth are in for a treat on July 16th, when Native Makers brings some creative magic to the Yard with a festival day out filled with unique food, entertainment and shopping.

Native Makers, will take place at Factory Cooperage, between 10am and 6pm, and looks to be bigger than ever before, with foodie exhibitors, live music from Knee Deep Festival and all kinds of creative entertainment, not to mention the shopping opportunities!

Creative team Rosie Drake-Knight and Emily Dymond have been working on Native Makers since 2014, when they hosted their first event. 'We had a vision of a local marketplace for high quality products, made by South West based emerging craftspeople.' says Emily.

'We want to celebrate all of the creative magic that the South West has to offer, and Royal William Yard is the perfect space to host this. We’re so grateful for the continued support from Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth Culture and of course Urban Splash for the opportunity to host NM at RWY', said Rosie Drake-Knight, co-founder of Native Makers.

'We’re delighted to be able to host and support Native Makers in this way,' said Emily Handslip, Director, Urban Splash. 'The Yard is somewhere that inspires creativity and enjoys a strong artists community, so we feel sure this will be a really exciting and successful event.'

The duo started Native Makers because they felt there was nothing like it in the South West. 'We wanted to be a part of something like this in Plymouth and so we had to create it ourselves. If there were two of us who wanted this kind of platform then we knew there would be more so we gave it a go! That was 2 years ago and look at where we are today – on the cusp of our fourth event with over 50 emerging, local makers in our current cohort. We are constantly amazed by the support and encouragement from everyone who has followed our journey so far.'

NM have also launched their 'Native Nurture' scheme for the summer event. Native Nurture is for new makers who have been trading for 1 year or less. Under the new scheme, new makers may be eligible for half price stall fees.

Rosie says: 'Our events are a chance for emerging designer makers to sell their work or promote their creative service in a high quality, low cost way. Many young creatives or new graduates start out their creative journey with no appropriate selling platform. Our events are purely for up and coming artists, new designers, graduates or creative small business owners. Our ambition is to put Plymouth on the map for arts and culture and to improve graduate retention by showcasing the wealth of talent our local, designer-makers have to offer.'

You can find out more information via their website, www.nativemakers.co.uk