Photograph courtesy Nick Dewald
On June 4, Lindsay and Nick Dewald celebrate the 15th anniversary of City Flea, the city’s most popular flea market. Thousands of shoppers flock to Washington Park each month to peruse aisles of tents set up from around the Civic Lawn to the Washington Bandstand, where hundreds of vendors have sold vintage clothing, antique home decor, handmade crafts and artworks, snacks, plants, wellness products, and more over the years.
Inspired by New York’s Brooklyn Flea, the inaugural City Flea in 2011 featured 45 vendors set up in a parking lot at the corner of Vine Street and Central Parkway. Now in its 16th season, the Dewalds reflect on a decade and a half of growth and how their event allows shoppers new and old to shop small and explore the city’s developing urban core.
Happy 15th anniversary! How does it feel to be in the 16th season of City Flea?
It’s been a roller-coaster over the past 15 years of excitement and energy. It’s always been a one- or two-person operation, so sometimes it can be a lot to do it, but then I go through periods where I’m super excited about it and have lots of ideas. This year, finally, we’re getting around to getting a bunch of City Flea merchandise together to sell; shirts, bags, hats, candles, pins, buttons, stickers, stuff like that.
Over the years, when we first started, we were kind of the only monthly vendor market in town. I take no credit for coming up with the idea of an alternative or indie flea market. But nowadays, there’s tons of markets, some of which seem to just be the exact description of ours, sometimes in the same location or on the same date, which gets a little frustrating. Part of the reason for the merchandise is for the event identity to be a little less behind the curtain so that people can acknowledge and remember that they are at City Flea. Based on what our vendors tell us, we think our market is great and we have really dedicated shoppers. We think we offer a pretty unique experience and atmosphere, so [we’re] trying to make people know where they’re at a little bit more and give people an opportunity to celebrate the brand of City Flea.
Although City Flea isn’t affiliated with the City of Cincinnati, it does feel like the city’s market to shoppers. Do you share that perspective, and how do you maintain that identity over time?
I like to think so. Here and there, through the years, it has been clear that people assume that maybe it is something that the City of Cincinnati or 3CDC or Washington Park does, because it is pretty consistent, large-scale, and has a fairly vague name. Which I take as a compliment because those three organizations—they do quality stuff. I chalk it up to, I feel like I am a pretty laid-back person in general, but I’m quite particular when it comes to the events. Maybe it just comes from having now done it for 15 years, seeing things that I think make the difference between, “Oh, there’s just people selling stuff here,” to it feeling like an atmosphere. Literally, after the first market we did in 2011, people were like, “You should do this every weekend,” or “You should do this all over town.” With a few exceptions, it’s always been a once-a-month thing, and we’ve pretty much—for the bread and butter markets—stayed in the city center of downtown or Over-the-Rhine.
Looking back on the past 15 years, you said you drew inspiration from the Brooklyn Flea. What originally inspired you about that market that carries on today?
I [think] back to [when] we have decided to have markets elsewhere, and it’s often because it’s something that’s fresh and new or that there’s things that people want to explore. I think that will always be the case for doing things at Washington Park or in Over-the-Rhine in general—because there’s an ecosystem. There’s always something [to do]; there’s always a new shop, there’s always a new restaurant, there’s always new and interesting changes in the area around City Flea.
I think that so much of our success through the years and the reason we’re still running is because [City Flea] offers people a whole experience. It’s not just, “We’re going to go somewhere and shop at some vendors and then we’re going to leave.” It’s “We’ll go down to Over-the-Rhine, and we know we’re going to City Flea but we’ll walk around and maybe get a coffee or a pastry or have lunch or get a cocktail and explore.” I think we started the City Flea at the exact right time in the city’s renaissance. We look back at that time with such nostalgia. We greatly benefitted from the fact that we were doing something new and interesting, and everybody just leaned into it.
I always talk about [MiCA 12/v owners] Mike and Carolyn Deininger because they were so supportive of us because we started a block south from there at the corner of Vine and Central Parkway. We were renting tents that were stored in the basement of that building. Mike would help us get them out of the basement, letting me borrow their truck to then drive them down. They were putting balloons up all over. Arnold’s Bar and Grill, before we ever did a single market, the night before the first Flea, I think all of them that season had a City Flea night where they had a special menu. Those are just a couple examples of ways that—for no real reason other than “Somebody is doing something interesting in Cincinnati and we should be supporting them”—they were doing these things. And it helped us then become a great thing and get exposure. That was a very grassroots beginning to City Flea, which I think also helped people realize this is something that’s new and edgy and something that they should check out.
How are businesses around OTR continuing to show that same enthusiasm and support?
There’s definitely still a lot of support, but the difference today is that since City Flea has been around for so long, the surrounding businesses probably don’t feel the need to lift the event up as much and moreso are focused on encouraging people to use it as a good excuse to come spend the day in the neighborhood. The support is still there, it’s just different, and in some ways I think it’s probably more on us to be the ones spreading the word and being supportive. We try to spread the word where we can.
In 2020, when we covered your 10th anniversary, you said you had more than 100 vendors and thousands of shoppers coming to markets. Have those numbers continued to grow?
They have. I try to cap the vendor count to around 125 to 140 vendors for an event, because I don’t want it to be too big.
What types of products and shops are you seeing that customers keep coming back for, and alternatively, what are some of the underdogs that might be getting overlooked?
It’s been interesting to see through the years how the popular types of vendors have gone up and down. As I think no one could probably ignore right now, vintage is so huge. We’ve begun doing all-vintage markets because it seems like it’s somewhat of its own category. Some shoppers and vendors who have been around for a while have probably noticed how much the presence of vintage vendors has grown through the years. While that may not be what everyone is there to shop for, clearly a lot of people are and it just happens to be what is popular at the moment. I still think that what makes our market and other markets interesting are the people who are truly doing something unique and making things by hand. We’ll always have a special place in our heart for the people who are actually making the things that they’re selling, because they can answer any question about it and they’re not trying to waste their own time making a product that they don’t have a good reason to think someone will want to pay for. They thought about every aspect of what they’re making, and there’s still plenty of people doing that. So we’re hopeful that trend continues. In the age of 3D printing and AI, I’d like to think that people’s appreciation for those skills and creativity and crafts will increase.
Where do you see the future of City Flea going?
I would love for people to continue to think of the City Flea as a kind of reliable destination, to bring friends from out of town, to come and have a day with their friends and family. There’s opportunities specialized markets like vintage or jewelry markets. We have done a women’s market, and that was a great success. There’s other examples I can name, but that is something that I could see in the future, just to diversify and be able to explore smaller events and different venues.
What would you want these people to know about what City Flea is now?
If I could deliver a message, it would be that the City Flea is still the premier place to shop small and shop local, and it’s still a reliable source, a unique experience—because that’s what drew people to the City Flea in the first place. That is still the case. The icing on the cake is that the city around it has just gotten so much better. The momentum has continued now for 20 years, and so there’s a whole new experience to have, no matter if it’s been five years since you walked around OTR or five weeks. That is a selling point of coming and having a City Flea day.
Find a complete schedule of City Flea’s season 16 market dates and locations at thecityflea.com.
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