This Saturday, South Park is on Sale!

1,000 homes (more or less) join together for a yard, garage, alley sale extravaganza! Discover Seattle’s family-friendly 100 year old neighborhood along the Duwamish River this Saturday, August 28, 11am-6pm, free outdoor movie “Up” at 8:30pm. Musicians, pirates, treasure, homebrew, Salsa dance party, fresh produce from Market on Wheels! It CAN happen in South Park, 98108, Cloverdale to 14th Ave S.

If you are from outside South Park or even in SP and want to to sell your wares at the market, come at 9am with $10 for your space rental. Bring your own tables and canopy. No electricity is available.

First Day Charm

Today was the first day of the market. There was a little confusion with the DOT and the City for how to block off the street, but that was resolved after the Mayor came down to spend some time checking out our market.

If you came, you saw 13 vendors, a smaller group, but a good group. On my partner and my limited budget, we managed to be entertained and come home with some nice stuff. I think we had $25 collectively between the two of us. I had a hot link and Elizabeth had a Field Roast dog from Mama Juanita’s. Good stuff with all the fixin’s.

I got a birthday gift for my best friends 1 year old. It’s the cutest little handmade stuffed octypus made from a recycled striped sweater. I think Colleen said her daughter designed them and she sewed them. It is super soft and adorable.

From Jose, of course, we bought organic broccoli and fresh cilantro. We bought some limes, onions and freshly made tamales from Maria to take home.

There was Tupperware for sale, so we got a couple items out of the discount bin, jewelry, rosaries, flea market stuff, clothes, cowboy boots, and more.

I can’t forget Alex, who is the guy to see for insurance, tax help and immigration assistance.

Mix all that with lots of good neighbors, laughter, cute dogs fun kids and it was a good day in the hood. On the walk back home, a neighbor gives us kale, lettuce, carrots and onions from her organic garden.

The South Park Market on Wheels is the most laid back friendly market I’ve ever been to. I caught the tail end of some good music. Wished I had gotten their earlier.

All in all, it was a quiet day, an intimate crowd, but fun for those who came. Hope we see you next time on July 17th.

Set-up Starts at 9am / 14th & Cloverdale

It’s gotten a bit little silly with where we are going to have the market this year. BUT, we finally have a confirmed location for sure. The City of Seattle gave us the official word last night that 14th Ave S, in front of Muy Macho, will be closed every market day for our Market. Yeah!

If you want to be a vendor, just show up at 9 am and ask for Carlos. The market can prohibit certain items from being sold in found inappropriate for the market and/or our audience.

While at our market, please remember to frequent our other South Park businesses as well.

• Buy your gas just a couple blocks away

• Stroll through the market with your espresso that you got just prior from Maria or one of drive thru spots

• Afterward, grab a beer at Loretta’s

• Take home pastries from Tikal Bakery

• Do your laundry while you shop

Discover other great things South Park has to offer. See ya this Saturday, July 3rd!

2010 Market Season

We are really looking for some more volunteers to help us make 2010 a returning event. Excited vendors want to return. But we still need some help in the grant writing and planning stages. Sure seems silly to work this far ahead, but it’s not. Grants due mid January and beyond. We also learned last year that before we knew it the summer was here and the market was a reality.

If you are interested in helping, please let us know. We need your help. This bilingual market is one of a kind in Seattle.

UNTIL NEXT YEAR

Just because the market is over for the year 2009, doesn’t mean we will not keep telling you all the things happening behind the scenes to make this next years market even better. So make sure you check in every once in a while and see what we are up to.

Right now we are gathering an advisory board which is meeting often to write grants and make suggestions and gather feedback. Then we start moving forward because to make a market successful, it has to be year-round at least in the planning stages. So off we go running for the 2010 season with plans to try and make this event weekly, have cake walks, more music, more produce, more of what you want, and even perhaps hours that will help folks who work on Saturday.

And as always, bi-lingual, multi-cultural and local resident vendors are the focus.

And a huge thank you to everyone that helped make the market a success, to the City of Seattle for our grant and faith in us, to our fiscal sponsor, to our neighborhood association who gave us insurance,  C2C for helping with our co-op, our vendors who continued to show up even though maybe our numbers were small, and to you, who spent your hard earned cash supporting a true grassroots organization.