Mercado
Flea Market is open the second Sunday of each month through May.
Held
on the sidewalks and parking lots on Avenida del Convento in the
Mercado District, the market features 46 local vendors selling
antique, vintage and pre-owned goods and collectibles. The next one
is 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 11, and it continues Jan. 8, Feb. 12, March
12, April 9 and May 14.
This
is the fifth year for the market, according to manager Carl Hanni.
“The
crowds were definitely down during the pandemic, but they have
totally come back,” Hanni said.
“They
are bigger than ever before. We didn’t cancel one of the years or
anything, the worst of it (COVID-19) was happening during the summer
months and we were not there (in the summer).
“We
certainly have several hundred, if not thousands of people come
through on any given flea market. The encouraging thing is that they
keep getting bigger. That’s what you want.”
Hanni
said the number of vendors is fixed, as it didn’t have room to
expand, even though the interest was there.
“We
probably have more vendors who want spaces than we have spaces for,”
Hanni said.
The
shape of the flea market has changed over the years, due to
construction in and around the Mercado District, he said. However,
he’s pleased with this season’s format.
“We
have had to adapt to the construction, so the flea market now looks
differently than it did two or three years ago,” Hanni added.
“We
have the best setup design we have ever had. We opened up a whole new
area last year, 2021-2022, across from the annex. We expanded out to
a lot over there and that allowed us to add eight more vendors. So
that was the big change.”
There is on-site
parking, and the streetcar has two stops along the flea market.
Several local restaurants and retailers, two coffeeshops, Westbound
Bar and La Estrella Bakery in the Mercado San Agustin and MSA Annex
are all open during the market.
Mercado Flea Market – aMercado District
when: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. the second Sunday of each month through May
WHERE: Avenida del Convento, between Congress and Cushing streets
info: 520-461-1107,
mercadodistrict.com,
flea@mercadodistrict.com
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2022.