What's Brooklyn Flea? Brooklyn's Most Popular Vintage Flea Market Plus Good Food

Brooklyn Flea is an arty but affordable marketplace of antique stalls, where vendors sell an eclectic selection of vintage furniture clothing, toys, timepieces, mid-century modern pieces, original artwork, oddball knick-knacks and more. It's a quintessential Brooklyn community experience that offers good people-watching and a chance to feel the pulse of the borough's trendy aesthetic. It's also a social venue of sorts, where people bump into friends and sometimes make new ones.

Last but not least, Brooklyn Flea is also a place to go for good food. At one fell swoop you can eat an Asian hot dog and a lobster roll, great chocolates, and an exquisitely decorated mini cupcake. In the summer, there's excellent ice cream.

Want to know more about what's sold at Brooklyn Flea? Find out What's Sold at Brooklyn Flea, anyway?

Where Is Brooklyn Flea?

Like its insect namesake, Brooklyn Flea hops around.

From November to April, the “Winter Flea” stuffs about a hundred vendors into one of historic Brooklyn's most elegant buildings, the Skylight One Hanson, in what was formerly known as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Fort Greene. The ornate, star-studded blue cupola of this old landmark is, on it's own, worth going to the Brooklyn Flea to see. It's open both Saturday and Sunday.

From April to November, Brooklyn Flea expands into huge outdoor spaces.

• Every Saturday from April to November the Brooklyn Flea fills the immense playground at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene with hundreds of vendor stalls.
• Every Sunday from April to November, hundreds of stalls fill a vacant swath of waterfront in Williamsburg between North 6th and North 7th Streets, affording visitors breathtaking Manhattan views. More about the Sunday Market in Williamsburg

Get More Details and Directions on Brooklyn Flea Locations

Pros and Cons of Brooklyn Flea

Pros of Brooklyn Flea

• Entrance is free.
• You can haggle.
• It's fun and you can do all those Brooklyn things: nosh, schmooze, and browse.
• The owners, like good hosts, keep the party going. Occasional for-the-heck-of-it games might include a treasure hunt (with such prizes as a rubber Tyrannosaurus Rex or vintage scarf), or a free drawing for prizes. One cold January season, free tickets to a production of Chekhov's "Three Sisters" (starring Brooklynites Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, of course) were given away.

Cons of Brooklyn Flea

• Prices are not necessarily "bargain basement."
• You likely won't "discover" something that's wildly undervalued. Most items are carefully selected and priced.
• On summer and holiday weekends, Brooklyn Flea can be mobbed.
• Rotating locations mean that not every vendor is at Brooklyn Flea every week; some participate only on alternate weekends.