Red Hill Market - First Saturday, Every Month
Victoria's largest artisan craft market. 200+ stalls, the whole ridge in one place, and a morning that pulls the entire Peninsula into orbit.
Red Hill Market runs the first Saturday of the month from September through May and it is the only Peninsula market that genuinely earns the hype. 200+ stalls, proper makers (not reseller tat), a coffee queue worth joining, and enough produce, plants and small-run ceramics to replace a Sunday afternoon shop at a fancy deli.
The single best move: arrive 8:45am, park at the recreation reserve while it's still possible, do the food lap first, the craft lap second, the plants lap last. By 11am it's packed. By 12:30 it's over. Budget two hours, eat as you go, and drive up the ridge for an early lunch before the cellar doors fill.
The months to beat the crowds: October, March, May. The months to skip: any December weekend the market coincides with school-holiday traffic - park outside Red Hill village and walk in.