Midtown Makers Gift Shop - BLOG

The year 2025 was exceptional for Midtown Makers Gift Shop. We hosted a range of creative workshops, supported emerging and small local businesses, and revamped both the shop and our website. Additionally, we became the Visitor Information Hub for Ballymena. It was an eventful year, and we want to express our gratitude to all our members, customers, and supporters for keeping Midtown Makers a lively and creative spot in Ballymena.

Thank you Ballymena Means for the fabulous video, we are all super happy with our make over, hope all our Members and customers like it too.

In 2015, Ballymena’s town centre was introduced to a small, cuddly character who would go on to win hearts across the globe—Bertie the Bear. Commissioned by the Ballymena Business Improvement District (BID), Bertie starred in a four-minute Christmas short film that quickly became a viral sensation. What started as a local festive project soon grew into something much bigger, a story that captured the heart and soul of Ballymena and proudly placed it on the world map.

This September, the team at Midtown Makers were invited to join the new Mid & East Antrim Neighbourhood Tourism Hub's familiarisation tours, led by Patricia McEldowney of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. Catriona, Jim and I were joined by Hub Members from Carrickfergus, Larne and Cullybackey to explore some of the many places of interest in the Borough.

"Retail Ready" is a pop-up-shop initiative managed by Ballymena Business Centre in partnership with The Gallaher Trust.  This initiative...

Ballymena Business Centre, in partnership with The Gallaher Trust and with the support of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and Invest NI, hosted a dynamic business clinic for the creative sector this week in Midtown Makers Gift Shop. The event drew a strong turnout from local artists, makers, and innovators eager to explore the range of support available to help start, grow and sustain their creative business.

How One Bicycle Threads Midtown Makers to Ballymena’s Textile Past. Written by Jim Stevenson Jim Stevenson stood outside Midtown Makers...