EASTER BAZAARS Feel the Squeeze as Rents Rise, Shoppers Fade

Apr 10 , 2026. By DAGIM SEIFE ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )

Easter bazaar season has unfolded under tighter constraints than in earlier years. Venue limitations, renovations, and scheduling difficulties associated with the election period reduced holiday shopping activities to a single major platform at the Exhibition Centre. Vendor participation remains active, but customer turnout was lower than in previous seasons. Across stalls, traders say limited traffic, slowed sales, and growing pressure made it difficult to recover operational costs within a short trading window, reports DAGIM SEIFE, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER

Ye'absira Ayele, a businessman from Merkato, sat behind a rack of women’s clothes last week, waiting for a rush that never came.

The garments around him were neatly arranged inside the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre, near to Mesqel Square. Every so often, he looked up from a conversation with a friend to watch the walkway for customers. Only a few visitors passed. None stayed long.

For six years, Ye'absira has made his living by moving from one bazaar to another, learning the rhythms of seasonal trade in Addis Abeba. He knows when crowds usually thicken, which holidays lift sales, and how much risk a vendor can absorb. Even so, he was stunned by the 200,000 Br rent he paid for a stall this Easter holiday, up by 50,000 Br from last year, for only two weeks. What unsettled him even more was the slow pace of traffic.

Renting one of the 300 stalls inside the pavilions, he felt he had paid more for less certainty.

Ye'absira's unease captured the mood over the Easter bazaar season. Under the wide steel canopy of the Exhibition Centre, a market has opened with an absence that is hard to miss. In a city where Fasika (Easter) once brought several events, only one was open this year, the Awash Birr Pro Fasika Expo. The drop in the number of bazaars has changed the rhythm of seasonal trade, leaving fewer options for vendors and visitors.

The thinning of the bazaar circuit did not happen by chance. According to Mekonen Assefa, one of the six shareholders of Barok Event Organiser, the company had organised an event at the Millennium Hall on Africa Avenue (Bole Road) during the previous Christmas season. It had planned to do similar for Easter, but ongoing renovations at Millennium Hall made that impossible. The company then hoped to shift to the Addis International Convention Centre, near the CMC residential complex. That also failed.

"Securing the venue for an extended period proved difficult because it is election season," Mekonnen told Fortune. "The logistical setbacks blocked us from staging the Easter fair."

The gap created room for Tamesol Communications Plc, to work with Awash Bank and take over the event at the Exhibition Centre for a second straight year, following what organisers described as a strong performance. But the consolidation of activity into a single hall has not produced the crowds that many expected. Long rows of stalls stretch across the floor, yet visitors move through in small groups, with long pauses in between. Vendors stood by their products, measuring the day in missed chances.

For traders, the weak flow was beyond a disappointment. Many came expecting the holiday spike in demand. Instead, they faced slow sales and uncertain returns while the cost of participating has risen. What used to be a period of busy exchange and strong earnings felt narrower and more fragile, marked by fewer bazaars, dwindling attendance and sharper anxiety over whether costs can be recovered before the season ends.

Natnael Zerihun, project manager of the Awash Birr Pro Fasika Expo, acknowledged the scale of the problem. The Exhibition had been planned around income streams from visitors, vendors and sponsorships. Lower attendance has cut into those expectations.

“Since there is a logistics issue, the number of visitors is much lower compared to previous exhibitions,” Natnael told Fortune.

The slowdown was visible not only to organisers and vendors but also to the customers who visited Addis Abeba's hangout for holiday bazaars and fairs. Bizuneh Folle, a father of two, arrived at the expo last week, intending to buy bed sheets and electronic home appliances. He bought two bed sheets for 3,300 Br and 4,500 Br, satisfied with the variety of goods on display. But he was struck by the light turnout.

“Usually, there is a crowd in the expo," he said. "However, the number has drastically dropped this time."

That sense of mismatch, between what the season used to be and what it has become, runs through the experiences of many vendors. Semehal Meresa, an importer and vendor selling imported cosmetics, was one.

Semehal has taken part in bazaars for the past two years, where she admitted raising prices by five percent from last year. But the increase has not translated into better sales. By midday on Wednesday, April 9, 2026, she had made only 15,000 Br in sales, worrying her about the cost of bringing in the products. Imported cosmetics are expensive, and she felt she had taken a big risk to stock them.

Fuel shortages have also made timely delivery more difficult, adding another layer of pressure. With fewer people coming through the hall, she was left wondering whether the business would make sense by the end of the bazaar on Saturday.

Elsewhere in the city, the pressures were similar. At the Mexico Square bazaar in Qirqos District, Elshaday Desalegn of Misgana Shoe displayed handmade shoes in different sizes, designs and colours. Over the past 12 years, He has taken part in major fairs, including those at Century Mall and the Exhibition Centre. That long view has allowed him to watch the holiday bazaar scene change. In recent years, He has seen many small businesses like him begin pulling back from the big fairs and bazaars. Stall rents have increased so sharply that it is becoming harder for small businesses to earn meaningful margins.

“If small enterprises participate in major exhibitions only once, they often find it hard to return for the next one,” Elshaday told Fortune.

Back at his stall, Yeabsira continued to wait, watching the gaps between passersby. In holiday markets like these, hope often arrives one customer at a time. This year, for many vendors, it is arriving too slowly.

PUBLISHED ON Apr 10,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1354]