For the first time since 2009, the Brooklyn Flea’s indoor iteration won’t be taking over the old Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Fort Greene, and while the neighborhood is already lamenting the market’s impending four-month absence, Flea co-founder Eric Demby assures us, we’ll have plenty to look forward to at its new indoor digs–a 47,000-square-foot space in Williamsburg at 185 Wythe Ave.
“This year outdoors we have 200 to 250 vendors selling pretty much every weekend,” said Demby of his ever expanding enterprise, which recently started a new Park Slope outpost in addition to its outdoor markets in Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., as well as its Smorgasburgs in Williamsburg, Dumbo and Lower Manhattan. “At One Hanson Place, we were stuffing in 100 [vendors] and then turning away weekly vendors who really wanted to sell. This was painful. At Wythe we’ll be able to fit in everyone who wants to sell and combine the Flea and Smorgasburg to create more of a full market experience.”
Demby expects a total of 175 vendors each weekend when the Winter Flea on Wythe Ave. opens Nov. 30. The new space will stay open until March 2014 when all the markets head back to their respective outdoor locations.
“It’s more than we’ve ever had at a single location,” Demby said of his new vendor estimations. “We’ll also have music, which we can never do outside, space for special, one-off events (none are scheduled yet) and vendors can leave their setups during the week, which will allow them to create more elaborate and cool booths. I think overall, it will get as close to the experience of the outdoor Flea as we can. We’re really excited about it.”
last week was the first week for the PS location and hopefully they improve. The Park Slope edition of the Brooklyn Flea is so pathetic.. it was really lame.
Brooklyn Flea thought they could reinvent the wheel, well finally they met there match a simple average real flea market that has no need to be curated.
This was there second week at 321 and less than thirteen venders each day, same curated crap we have seen over the last five years!
if not for the few original 321 venders that were allowed back it would be a total bore.
I was one of the 40 vendors who was displaced by Brooklyn Flea when they took over P.S. 321. Here is the Village Voice Articlehttp://www.villagevoice.com/2013-11-06/news/brookyn-flea-park-slope-gentrification-eric-demby/
And I continue to rant about my hatred for them on my bloghttp://garbology.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/blue-blood-and-thin-skin-at-brooklyn-flea/