01
Craft made by hand
Embroidery, ceramics, jewellery, instruments, woodwork, textiles, painting, icons, paper. The listing carries the maker's name, and the jury asks the craft row's question: did you make this?
Market · stage one
The rules of this market.
The market is a catalogue. A seller writes a listing, a buyer reads it and writes back, and the two of them settle everything else between themselves. This page says what may be listed, what is refused, who carries which risk, how a listing comes down, and how to get your data out of here.
Stage one rules · the catalogue opens in spring 2027 · payments inside the site would rewrite this page
| § | What it settles |
|---|---|
| 01 | What may be listed |
| 02 | What is refused |
| 03 | Who carries which risk |
| 04 | Checking, takedown, appeal |
| 05 | Complaints, and your data |
Three stages. This is the first.
The market grows in steps, and every step adds an obligation the team has to be able to carry. Stage one keeps the deal in the hands of the two people making it, and keeps our promise to the size of what we can actually do.
Stage plan · dates are our intent
| Stage | What it does | What we take on | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopfront | Catalogue, listing pages, a message that reaches the seller. Deals agreed off this site. | Reading every listing before it appears. | Spring 2027 |
| Requests | Enquiries, their history and a status, inside the participant account. | Answering a dispute between two parties. | After the first festival |
| Payments | Payment, delivery, refunds, and a commission arriving with them. | Terms of sale, tax handling, refunds, dispute resolution, support. | Year three, if sellers ask for it |
§ 01 · what may be listed
What may be listed.
The catalogue holds what the communities of this city make, cook, teach and perform. A listing that would sit just as happily on a classifieds site belongs on one.
Four doors · the catalogue opens spring 2027
02
Packaged food
Sealed, shelf-stable goods — spice blends, preserves, honey, coffee, tea, sweets. Food safety and every permit behind it belong to the seller, and the listing says how the food is made and how it is stored.
03
Services
Catering, musicians and ensembles, dance classes, workshops, decor, photography of a celebration. The listing states what a booking includes and what it depends on.
04
Community shopfronts
A community's sellers gathered on one page, opened together with that community and carrying its own name. The shopfront links to the article about the community, and the article links back.
Six lines · read on every listing before it goes up
What a listing has to carry.
- Your own photographs. Pictures of the actual object or the actual work, taken by you or used with the photographer's permission. A stock image or a picture lifted out of a search is refused.
- A description a person wrote. What it is, what it is made of, what sizes exist, how long a made-to-order piece takes.
- A price signal in Canadian dollars. A range works. So does «price on request» for a service. A listing that gives a buyer nothing to judge reads as a dead end and gets returned.
- A working way to reach you, and a person behind it who answers. At stage one a buyer's enquiry reaches you through us, so your phone number stays off the public page unless you put it there.
- Your own legal footing. Ontario asks food and several services to be registered, licensed or insured. That paperwork stays with you, the form asks you to confirm you hold it, and the catalogue keeps no copy of it.
- English today. The French mirror of the market opens with the rest of the French site, and listings get their second language on the same day.
§ 02 · refused, every time
Refused. Every time.
A listing that touches one of these lines stays down, and the seller hears which line it was and why. Send the missing licence or the missing evidence and the answer changes.
| Refused | Why |
|---|---|
| Bulk goods bought in to resell | A maker's row filled with wholesale stock stops being a maker's row. Buying to resell belongs on a general marketplace. |
| Counterfeits, brand copies, unlicensed characters | Straightforward, and it applies to embroidery and printing as much as to handbags. |
| Alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, vapes | Licensed trade with rules a form cannot verify. |
| Weapons, replicas, blades sold as weapons | A ceremonial piece belongs in a museum listing rather than a shopping card. |
| Medicines, supplements, cures, health claims | A tea that tastes of ginger is welcome. A tea that treats an illness is refused. |
| Food cooked at home to be eaten straight away | Packaged and shelf-stable goods list freely. Cooking for the public needs an approved kitchen and a public-health permit, and the catering category is where that conversation starts. |
| Live animals, protected wildlife, ivory, coral, human remains | Antiques that carry any of them are included. |
| Sacred and ceremonial objects sold as souvenirs | The culture on a listing is a claim about the seller, and we check it when the claim is heavy. |
| One community's craft or symbols sold as another's | Same check, same reason, and the community concerned is asked before we decide. |
| Hate material, campaigning, petitions, recruitment | The festival stays out of other people's arguments, and so does its catalogue. |
| Adult material, gambling, crypto, money offers | None of it belongs beside a family kitchen and a Saturday school. |
| Personal data, contact lists, ticket touting | Selling somebody else's details is refused whatever form it arrives in. |
| Anything needing a licence we cannot see | Send the licence and the answer changes. |
§ 03 · who carries which risk
Who carries which risk.
The deal is between the seller and the buyer. Saying that plainly, a year before the catalogue opens, is worth more than a clause somebody finds after a parcel goes missing.
Stage one · the deal happens off this site
01
The seller
Owns the listing and everything inside it: the description, the photographs, the price, the tax, the licence, the food safety, the delivery, and whatever gets promised in a message afterwards. The seller is the party a buyer contracts with.
02
The buyer
Reads the listing, asks questions, and decides. Money changes hands between the two of you, on terms the two of you set, by a method the two of you choose.
03
Capital Cultures
Runs the catalogue and moderates it. We read a listing before it appears, we take one down when it breaks these rules, and we answer complaints. That is the whole of our part at stage one.
04
What stays outside our hands
We hold no money, ship nothing, verify no seller's identity, inspect no goods, guarantee no quality and issue no refunds. A sale agreed through this catalogue carries no warranty from us, and Capital Cultures is party to none of it.
05
When a deal goes wrong
Write to the other party first, in writing you can keep. Tell us as well: one account starts a conversation with the seller, and a pattern takes the shopfront down. Where a crime has been committed it belongs with the police, where a payment provider is involved it belongs with the provider, and we hand both of you what we hold about the listing.
§ 04 · checking, takedown, appeal
How a listing is checked.
A person reads every listing before anyone else sees it. That single rule is what keeps this catalogue part of a festival, and a catalogue without it fills with random stock inside a month.
- Step 01Planned You send the listing Photographs, description, price signal, contact, and the community the craft or the kitchen belongs to.
- Step 02Planned A person reads it Subject, honesty of the description, quality and ownership of the photographs, and the refused list. Every listing, every time, before it is visible.
- Step 03Planned Published, or sent back A returned listing comes back with the rule it broke and what to change. Fixing it and sending it again is the normal path and costs nothing.
- Step 04Planned It lives under the same rules A published listing is read again when it is edited, when somebody complains, and on a sweep of the whole catalogue before each festival.
- Step 05Planned You can appeal Ask, and a refusal or a takedown gets a second read from someone who had no part in the first decision.
Seven reasons · each one written to the seller
Why a listing comes down.
| Reason | Who starts it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The seller asks | Seller | Down on the day we read the message, with no questions asked and no exit interview. |
| A refused category | Moderation | Down at once, with the line it broke quoted back to the seller. |
| Photographs or work belonging to somebody else | Usually a complaint, then moderation | Down while it is checked, back up if the seller shows the work is theirs. |
| A description that misleads | Moderation | Down until it is corrected. A repeat closes the shopfront. |
| A pattern of complaints about deals | Buyers or sellers | One account is a conversation with the seller. A pattern closes the shopfront. |
| The seller stops answering | Moderation | Hidden once messages stop reaching the seller, restored the day they come back. |
| Either side ends the relationship | Seller or festival | In writing, from either direction, and the listings come down with it. |
§ 05 · complaints, and your data
Your data, and how to get it out.
We keep what a listing needs and the letters you agreed to. Getting all of it deleted takes one message, and the answer says what went and what a backup still holds.
Consent per mailing type · nothing sold, nothing handed on
| What we hold | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| The listing: text, photographs, price, category | To publish the catalogue | While the listing is up, then in a rolling backup for a short window after it comes down |
| Contact details: name, email, a phone number if you gave one | To answer you and to relay a buyer's enquiry | While your shopfront is open |
| Your community, and links you gave us | To connect a shopfront to the article about that community | While your shopfront is open |
| Messages you send us | To answer them, and to see a pattern of complaints | While a complaint is open, then as the record of the decision |
| Mailing consents, held per type | Canadian anti-spam law asks for consent under each type of letter separately | Until you withdraw it |
- Ask, and it goes. One message removes your listings, your shopfront and your contact details. The reply names what is gone and what the backup still holds until it rolls over.
- Ask, and you get a copy of everything we hold about you, in a form you can read.
- Consent runs per letter type. News, festival announcements and participant letters are three separate ticks, and none of them is ticked for you. One click ends any of them.
- The form asks for what the listing needs. Date of birth, home address and citizenship stay off every form on this site, because each extra field is another thing to protect.
- Your details go nowhere else. We use them for your listing and for the letters you ticked. We sell nothing, and we hand nothing to a sponsor.
- This section is the marketplace privacy notice. A notice covering the whole site publishes with the rest of the legal pages, alongside the French mirror. Until then these five rows and the five lines above them are the whole of what the market holds about a seller.
Do you take a commission?
Stage one takes nothing. Money never runs through this site, so there is nothing to take a percentage of. If payments ever move inside the site, the commission, the terms and the tax handling publish together, and every seller hears about it before it starts.
Can I list things I bought to resell?
The catalogue is for what you make, cook, grow, teach or perform. Bulk goods bought in to flip are refused, and a shopfront that fills with them is closed.
My listing was refused. What now?
The refusal names the rule and what to change. Fix it and send it again — that is the normal path and it costs nothing. Ask for a second read if the first one looks wrong to you.
Who do I complain to about a seller?
Us, through the form on this page. Every report is read by a person. One account starts a conversation with the seller, a pattern takes the listings down. Where money was taken and nothing arrived, that is a matter for the police and for whatever you paid with, and we give both sides what we hold about the listing.
Do I need a business number or a licence?
That depends on what you sell and how much of it moves. Food, several services and anything cooked for the public carry their own requirements in Ontario and in Ottawa. Holding the right paperwork is your side of the line: the form asks you to confirm you hold it, and the catalogue keeps no copy.
Can a community open a shopfront for its members?
Yes, and that is how this market is meant to work. A community shopfront gathers its sellers on one page, links to the article about the community, and the article links back. Write to us and we open it together.
When does the catalogue actually open?
Spring 2027 is our intent, ahead of the first festival. The rules stand on this page a year early so a seller can decide now whether these terms work for them.
Report a listing.
Anything in this market that crosses a line on this page — tell us here. A person reads every report and answers the person who sent it.
Intake 04 · marketplace moderation · answered by a person
Where this goes next.
The rules sit inside a market that ties every seller to a community and every community to an article about it. The links below are the rest of that loop.
Market & partners · the rest of the section
Sell what you make.
The catalogue opens in spring 2027. The rules stand here a year early, so nobody agrees to terms they read afterwards.