Not a Flea market?
Not exactly. Our juried vintage and artisan/maker market was launched in June 2013 and has been typically held (pre-Covid-19) outdoors in the summer and fall every Sunday, and indoors in Winter and Spring on limited dates. The Flea has hosted over 1,000 local vintage vendors and some of the area's most creative artists, artisans and makers, plus community non-profits, food trucks and carts, and live musicians--activating a tiny parcel of unused 195 District Commission land.
We don't consider ourselves a typical flea market. We're a marketplace, for sure, inspired by the insanely popular, fun and famous flea in Brooklyn, New York. Our vendors are carefully selected, small- and micro-businesses, and their wares are hand-picked, homemade, handcrafted and small batch. What you won't find is anything mass-produced or licensed, or typically sold through groups, clubs, franchises or independent salespeople on a large scale.
In many cases our vendors are using the Flea as a launchpad to grow, to meet their customers and to move on to the next level. Many of our vendors have indeed outgrown the Flea, and that's just fine with us. In fact, we're rooting for them.
We welcome local community non-profits with any mission related to the environment, arts, youth, LGBT issues or animal welfare. We invite local musicians to play the boardwalk unplugged for our engaging, generous and appreciative patrons.
We've also hosted dozens of the area's best local food trucks, carts and purveyors whose products are locally sourced and homemade, and they keep our Flea patrons and vendors well-fed and watered.
And we believe all of this helps the local economy by encouraging Rhode Islanders to "buy local" and support their friends and neighbors who are vending at the Flea. Pre-Covid-19, thousands of visitors--both locals and tourists--shopped the Flea every weekend. We're now slowly coming back as our state re-opens its economy.
We don't consider ourselves a typical flea market. We're a marketplace, for sure, inspired by the insanely popular, fun and famous flea in Brooklyn, New York. Our vendors are carefully selected, small- and micro-businesses, and their wares are hand-picked, homemade, handcrafted and small batch. What you won't find is anything mass-produced or licensed, or typically sold through groups, clubs, franchises or independent salespeople on a large scale.
In many cases our vendors are using the Flea as a launchpad to grow, to meet their customers and to move on to the next level. Many of our vendors have indeed outgrown the Flea, and that's just fine with us. In fact, we're rooting for them.
We welcome local community non-profits with any mission related to the environment, arts, youth, LGBT issues or animal welfare. We invite local musicians to play the boardwalk unplugged for our engaging, generous and appreciative patrons.
We've also hosted dozens of the area's best local food trucks, carts and purveyors whose products are locally sourced and homemade, and they keep our Flea patrons and vendors well-fed and watered.
And we believe all of this helps the local economy by encouraging Rhode Islanders to "buy local" and support their friends and neighbors who are vending at the Flea. Pre-Covid-19, thousands of visitors--both locals and tourists--shopped the Flea every weekend. We're now slowly coming back as our state re-opens its economy.
