Let’s take a visit to Hanami Market 2025 at Suntec City in Singapore. This annual event is a marketplace which tad celebrates Japanese culture. It features over 60 stall booths within an indoor venue brought to you by local and international vendors.
Here, they offer fan art, exclusive apparel, and handcrafted trinkets. The market runs over a one-Sunday date on the weekend of 9 February and is located on the open third-floor atrium of Suntec City Convention Centre.
The best part? Entry is free, with event fees covered by rental revenue. This is a welcome change, especially as most anime-themed events in Singapore, like AFA and the Singapore Comic Con requires pricey entrance fees, which had growth pricier over the years.
What Is in Store
Furthermore, at Hanami Market, you can explore a diverse range of artist booths. Artists showcase original works and fan creations across various fandoms. Goods of the trade here revolve largely around anime and Japanese pop culture, including artworks, prints, acrylic standees, and keychains.
Crafters display handmade jewelry, accessories, and decorative items. Cosplayers present here also add tad some vibrancy, a staple in any Anime event now in Singapore, engaging with visitors and posing for photos.
A packed, but management crowd
Also, the market features a wide variety of goods catering to Japanese pop culture fans. Though I found that the selections are tad smaller to that of AFA and less diverse and smaller than that of the Artbox marketplace we checked out earlier this year. The market layout consists of four rows of stalls running lengthwise across the level 3 open space. There is a central walkway flanked by two rows on each side. The walkway could be wider, as notable choke points form where long queues spill into common areas.
Here, artist booths sell exclusive prints, posters, and stickers featuring original artwork and popular anime characters. Other handcrafted accessories of the trade here includes the likes of enamel pins, keychains, and bookmarks. You can view them on large pin up boards featured prominently on each stalls. On payment methods, cash is accepted at all stalls, though cashless payments like paynow and paylah are preferred. You can tell this with most vendors having their QR codes prominently placed at the front of their stalls.
Moreover, apparel vendors wrap up the market offerings here, with a selection of T-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags with unique designs inspired by anime, manga, and video games. Also, I noticed some stalls tad specialize in Japanese-themed home decor, including decorative pillows, wall scrolls, and ceramic figurines.
Additionally, if you are sharp you can spot rare merchandise, such as limited-edition figurines, trading cards, and gacha capsule toys. Also, other handmade crafts I saw in my walkthrough includes crochet items, resin jewellery, plushies, and paper crafts make for tad one-of-a-kind souvenirs. A stall selling keyboard keycaps is also an interesting find.
Also highlight is the selection of exclusive apparel. Some booths have long snaking queues for designs featuring popular anime and manga characters. Handcrafted trinkets like keychains and bookmarks make for unique souvenirs. The market fosters a sense of community among Japanese culture fans.
Cosplayers at Hanami Market
It’s not just a market, you can spot a large gathering of cosplayers around Suntec Convention Centre. They camp in open spaces, dressed in elaborate costumes. This tad adds a fun and colourful touch to the event.
Cosplayers bring beloved characters to life with impressive outfits and accessories. Many attendees to the market can be seen camping at the event fringe areas by the convention grounds function room areas, dressed as their favourite anime, manga, and game characters. You can find them interacting with visitors and posing for photos.
Notably, though cosplay is not an official showpiece here at Hanami Market, some cosplayers go all out with intricate props, wigs, and makeup, showcasing dedication to their craft. You can also see them roaming out of the convention grounds within Suntec city mall too. These cosplayers gathering is an official one, separate from the market and is usually a fringe gathering of both seasoned and casual cosplayers, creating a vibrant, inclusive atmosphere. It does also give you a preview of the cosplayers you can expect for subsequent Anime conventions on the Singapore calendar, like Anime Festival Asia (AFA) and Singapore comic convention (SGCC) for instance.
Most cosplayers dress as various Japanese pop culture characters, including those from popular mobile games like Genshin Impact. There is also a group of cartoon animal mascots roaming the event grounds.
Wrapping up
That wraps up the visit to Hanami Market. It was a lively and engaging celebration of Japanese pop culture. The event featured diverse artist booths, unique merchandise, and an enthusiastic cosplay scene. Suntec City’s central location made access convenient, enhancing the experience. With its mix of creativity, fandom, and community, the event successfully brought together fans and creators in a memorable way. Check out the market place which runs a one-day event today on Sunday 9th Feb.
