Comments on Silver Spring, Singular: Fenton Street Market: A Good Start

I hope the market manages to persist until it find...

2009-10-04T21:04:52.209-05:00

I hope the market manages to persist until it finds its character and niche market.

I attended the flea market this weekend and found ...

2009-09-14T13:15:41.412-05:00

I attended the flea market this weekend and found it a nice little outing. Of course I didn't read the announcement close enough and went to Ellsworth expecting to find it and thought I'd found the worst flea market I had ever seen since all they had was a bunch of farmers. Anyway, thought the market was okay. Could have used less artists and more junk, I mean, antiques. How much jewelry does one really need? Add a car show style swapmeet and I'll be in heaven. This is not a good location for a permanent market as it's way too small. I wonder if the county would let them appropriate space in the parking garages? I'm sure MoCo would be very open and reasonable about that. (hahahaha).

I did pick up a nice wrought iron towel rack I like a lot and it was nice to talk to the Community Forklift people as I had never heard of them and now plan on using the first chance I get. Kudos for the used bike vendor too. Oh and who was that Physic Reader? Is she single? I almost paid for a reading just so I could stare at her for 5 minutes.

i'll have to disagree with anonymous in hoping for...

2009-09-14T13:06:38.384-05:00

i'll have to disagree with anonymous in hoping for less "cheap jewelry and random junk." i guess it's personal taste, but i think random junk is what makes flea markets amazing. you can find antiques or sea glass crafts anywhere, but how often do you see a two-headed troll? (for real, it was there.)

i loved the fenton market and appreciated the variety of vendors. hope it stays & grows - bring on the junk!

I would like the organizers to market to some of t...

2009-09-14T10:35:10.286-05:00

I would like the organizers to market to some of the vendors that regularly set up at the various Sunday flea markets around the area. I dunno, maybe they're busy on Saturdays, but if not, perhaps this would be a new opportunity for them.

I appreciated the effort that went into planning t...

2009-09-14T10:31:15.960-05:00

I appreciated the effort that went into planning this, and I certainly like the idea of the Fenton Street Market, but the reality was that the quality (and quantity) of vendors was generally very poor. There were of course a couple of exceptions, although to be honest I don't remember their names. I was really hoping for more in the way of antiques rather than cheap jewelry and random junk. However, I'm hopeful that since this was the inaugural market they'll improve things with the next one.
On the positive side of things - the music was fairly good, and the market did bring out a lot of people to an area of SS that usually doesn't see a whole lot of foot traffic. It also allowed us the opportunity to lunch at Negril on Thayer Ave, which was fairly good and very reasonably priced.
Again, kudos to everyone involved in arranging this, but let's hope better vendors show up for Fenton Street Market 2.0

Maybe the 80 count included shared booths plus of ...

2009-09-13T07:47:41.953-05:00

Maybe the 80 count included shared booths plus of course the no-shows? Folks selling fragile ephemera like the book guy have to play it be weather and if any rain is predicted it is better for them to cancel.

If we don't BUY - why would vendors return? I go to events like this thinking more in frame of gifts - only 103 days left until Christmas! It will fly by...