Nicosia does not have a regular night market. Its traditional markets keep daytime hours, and evening stalls in the capital come with seasonal events instead: street-food Fridays in the Municipal Gardens, two-night festivals on Eleftheria Square and, in December, a Christmas market of local makers. Here is what runs when, and where to shop for produce by day.
Fork Food Market is the nearest thing to a recurring night market. It fills the Nicosia Municipal Gardens, just outside the Venetian walls about 300 metres west of Paphos Gate, on Friday evenings in a spring season (April and May) and an autumn season (September and October). Vendors serve from 18:00 or 19:00 until about 22:00 or 23:00, with burgers, pizzas, bao buns, vegetarian dishes and meat plates, then the bar and the DJs carry on until about midnight; entry was free when the 2025 autumn season opened. The autumn 2026 season reopened on Friday 18 September, and new dates appear on forkfoodmarket.com and on facebook.com/forkcy. There are no craft stalls: it is food, drinks and music.
Inside the walls, AKORA Street Food Vibes turned Plateia Dimarchias, the square in front of the new Nicosia Town Hall, into an open-air kitchen every other Saturday from 18 April to 27 June 2026, from 19:00 to midnight. It is run by Akora, an all-day café and lounge bar on the square, so expect one kitchen's menu rather than rows of stalls: chicken souvlaki, pork fillet brochette, cheese fries, a vromiko sandwich and a vegan sandwich, with cocktails and a DJ. No autumn dates have been announced, so look for it again in spring.
For handmade goods after dark, time a visit for the United Street Festival on Eleftheria Square, at the edge of the walled city. It runs on two evenings a year, from 18:00 to midnight: the second edition was on 9 and 10 July 2025, the 2026 festival on 12 and 13 September. Cypriot artists, designers and small businesses take booths on the covered lower level of the square (in 2025 they brought handmade jewellery, fashion and accessories), with street food, cocktail bars, dessert stands and live music around them. It is ticketed: in 2026 entry at the door cost EUR 12 until 20:00 and EUR 15 after.
The closest match to the classic picture of a market with crafts, food and music is the Official Nicosia Christmas Market, run by Handmade in Cyprus with the Municipality of Nicosia on the covered ground level of Eleftheria Square. Last season, from 29 November 2025 to 4 January 2026, it had about 40 local artists and makers a day, craft workshops, live performances and street-food and drinks stalls. The 2026 market opens on selected days only, according to the organiser's call for stallholders: 28 and 29 November, 12 and 13 December and 19 and 20 December from 11:00 to 20:00, 21 to 23 December from 17:00 to 21:00, and 24 and 27 December from 11:00 to 20:00 (on Christmas Eve it may close earlier).
Around it, the municipality's own Christmas programme runs from 29 November 2026 to 6 January 2027 along a route from Eleftheria Square to Paramythoupoli, the Christmas fun fair in the D'Avila moat. The municipality is also inviting proposals for Christmas markets in wooden huts on Makarios Avenue and Spyridakis Square from 28 November 2026 to 8 January 2027, and says the full programme will be announced later. Last winter's wooden-hut market on Makarios Avenue, The Jolly Road, opened from 17:00 to 22:00 on weekdays.
For fruit, vegetables and village produce, go in daylight. The OXI market on the Constanza Bastion trades on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 06:00 until mid-afternoon (the municipality and Visit Cyprus give different closing times), and the Agios Antonios Municipal Market on Evgenias and Antoniou Theodotou Street opens daily except Sundays and public holidays (+357 22 431558). The old covered municipal market in the walled city no longer trades: since April 2024 it has housed the CYENS Centre of Excellence.
Across the Ledra Street crossing, the Bandabuliya, the municipal market of north Nicosia, sells local food, spices, meat, fruit and vegetables, and since it reopened after renovation in June 2012 it also has cafés, bookshops and a small theatre. Nearby, the Büyük Han, the inn the Ottomans built in 1572, holds craft and souvenir shops, a coffee house and a restaurant. Both keep daytime hours, and both lie in the Turkish occupied north, so a visit means crossing at one of the official checkpoints with a passport or ID.
If evenings like these are part of why Nicosia appeals, Cyprus Decoded offers relocation help to make the move to the capital straightforward.
