INDIANAPOLIS — Get into the holiday spirit with a new German market downtown. Beginning Friday, the Athenaeum Foundation is bringing the inaugural Athenaeum Christkindlmarkt to the Rathskeller Biergarten.
This market has been in the works for nearly four years and focuses on local businesses.
"The Athenaeum Foundation has always been to educate folks on the history of German immigrants coming to Indianapolis, and the holidays are always very important for the German immigrants and their families that have come to Indianapolis," said Athenaeum Foundation President Craig Mince. "We wanted to make sure that we instilled some sort of holiday tradition."
It features 12 local vendor huts. Gravesco Pottery in Indy has been handmaking signature boot mugs for the last several months.
"It's amazing. The support that the city has afforded to the makers and the artists has been phenomenal, and having this focus on local businesses so that we can collaborate together, and I've met so many amazing people through this process as a result of just the process of making the mugs, working together here and setting up the Christkindlmarkt, the meetings that sort of thing," said Rebecca Prowse. "To have this level of support for something local is spectacular."
Admission to the holiday market is free. The market is open Thursdays through Sundays through December in the Rathskeller Biergarten at 401 E. Michigan St. in Indianapolis.