Berkeley High School hosted its first night market on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in the cafeteria.
“I’ve always loved the energy of night markets … the way they bring people together with food, music, and local vendors, creating this vibrant atmosphere that feels alive,” Bianca Hylton Rivera, BHS senior and one of the event’s main organizers, said, “I wanted to bring that same feeling to BHS.”
Originating in China, a traditional night market is an open air event that features a variety of vendors, food, merchandise, and other goods.
“I wanted people to walk in and immediately feel the energy, whether it was through the smell of amazing food, or just the buzz of people exploring different booths,” Rivera said.
Proposed, coordinated, and planned by students, the BHS night market hosted a variety of clubs, including the Black Student Union (BSU), the Southeast Asian Student Union, and many others. Clubs gathered to present and promote their different activities, while raising funds to support themselves.
Coinciding with BHS’ open house night, the night market drew in parents and students alike with the many booths and interactive aspects. John Villavicencio, BHS’s Director of Student Activities, described other school events such as the open house night as purely a showcase of the school, with few interactive aspects to them. In contrast, the night market was made with a goal of being an “engaging space, where students and families could come together in a way that felt different from typical school events,” Rivera said.
Student leaders initially planned for the night market to be outside, emulating traditional night markets. However, on the day before the night market, unexpected weather events forced a relocation of the entire event.
These sudden rain-induced changes affected many of the market’s former plans.
“We wanted to have it outside, we wanted to have performances,” Villavicencio said. The entire layout was forced to be remodeled for the cafeteria, and organizers worked hard to ensure vendors had enough space and foot traffic remained minimal. “It wasn’t ideal, but everyone adapted really well, and we still managed to keep that energetic, bustling vibe,” Rivera said.
Despite some road bumps during coordination of the night market, Rivera, Villavicencio, Jessica Hipona, a BHS senior and another main organizer of the event, and many other participants felt the event was an overwhelming success, and are excited about the possibility of it becoming a yearly recurrence.
Hipona walked through the night market herself, learning more about clubs she was unfamiliar with beforehand.
“All the club people who were here seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I saw them having a lot of fun and getting a lot of visibility,” she said.
BHS’s Southeast Asian Student Union (SASU) is a new club co-led by Asha Bui, a BHS sophomore. SASU participated in the night market to gather more interest in their club and encourage freshmen and new students to join. At their stand, they sold chicken curry puffs, filipino milk candies, and turon, and taught people about their club’s mission, which is to “celebrate the cultures of Southeast Asians,” Bui said.
Hipona hoped the night market would give clubs a chance to fundraise and advertise themselves.
“Some clubs, especially the newer ones, are underfunded,” she explained. Events later in the day such as the night market allow for students to sell club related items to attendees. She also saw the night market as a unique opportunity for parents to get a closer look at what their children are doing at school, which is often uncommon with BHS’ big population size.
For students, Hipona hoped “that they can also see more opportunities for themselves and hopefully opportunities for leadership,” in the night market.
“We have a very diverse student body here at Berkeley High School, who are involved in a lot of things, and they are very passionate about sharing that,” Villavicencio said, on what he hoped people would take away from the event.