The Backyard Flea, Ithaca’s new night flea market, gave the Ithaca community a summer to shop, eat, drink and dance under the stars.

Located outside the Northstar House, this outdoor shopping extravaganza includes more than 15 vendors with local handmade jewelry, handbags, vintage furniture and an abundance of secondhand clothes, alongside fresh food, drinks and music performances from local DJs. For patrons over the age of 21, the market features a bar with its own mixologist. In the summer, the Backyard Flea began June 12 and ran every other Wednesday from 5–9 p.m. until Aug. 21. Given its success over the summer, the Backyard Flea will be extending into the fall season. Starting Sept. 4, the market will be every Wednesday until Oct. 23.

Samantha Blum— Backyard Flea co-founder alongside her friend and Ithaca College sophomore Ella Hamilton, Ellamae Robinson and local photographer Ava Thomas— frequently walks around the market to check in on the vendors and see how everyone is doing. While the market is open to all ages, Blum and Hamilton curated the time frame specifically for individuals who may work during the day.

“We are a late night flea market, which I’ve never really heard of before and I think that’s where we hit the very specific niche,” Blum said. “We’re in Fall Creek, where there are a lot of families coming through. We wanted to have it at night specifically to give people that work during the day an opportunity to come out after they’re done working to hang out, have a drink, have a burger, walk around, meet some people and get some cool new stuff.”

Vanessa Weber, owner of the antique store Found in Ithaca, located behind Wegmans, also identified the Fall Creek location as a particular strength of the market. Weber heard of the Backyard Flea through Hamilton, a frequent customer of Found in Ithaca.

“Fall Creek is a fabulous neighborhood and it’s always been a student destination,” Weber said.

As a vendor during the summer season of this market, Weber enjoyed seeing neighborhood friends walk around the market. She also appreciated the opportunity to witness colleagues from her antique store run their own booths. As a patron, Weber enjoyed the handcrafted drinks and the diverse range of items sold like jewelry and vintage clothes.

“I’ve seen some musical instruments get sold recently,” Weber said. “That, to me, is so impressive, because we’re trying to sell some furniture, which is a little hard, because carrying a chair up to college is not that easy.”

Alongside running a vintage booth of their own, the young entrepreneurs were involved in administrative preplanning and public outreach to make the Backyard Flea a reality. Blum and Hamilton created a vendor contract to ensure everyone was aligned on proper conduct during flea market nights and what to expect from participating as sellers.

Thomas compiled images for The Backyard Flea Instagram, which Blum and Hamilton manage on their own. The market’s widespread online presence — including its Instagram, TikTok and website — utilizes bright colors, current fashion trends and attention-grabbing designs to cater toward the younger side of their otherwise broad age demographic.

Weber identified the Backyard Flea as having a unique grasp on branding toward the younger population of Ithaca. As a first-time vendor at a market like this, the small business owner said she was impressed with how young some of the other vendors were.

“What I think is really special about this is that it’s quite young in energy,” Weber said. “I think something about that youth and newness gives this whole atmosphere zest.”

While outside of this younger demographic, Ithaca resident and social media strategist Cydney Wixon heard of the market from a friend of hers who forwarded an Instagram post from the Backyard Flea page. Wixon, who moved to the area in 2021 from New York City, has attended the market almost every Wednesday this summer.

Found in Ithaca is one of Wixon’s favorite vendors at the market, along with the handcrafted drinks and anything vintage from the ’80s. As a mother, Wixon said she enjoys the Backyard Flea as both a family-friendly weeknight activity and a melting pot of differing age groups.

“Apple Fest is fun in its own way because it celebrates the core of Ithaca, but this really brings together different people that wouldn’t have otherwise been together,” Wixon said.

This atmosphere is evident in the Backyard Flea’s online advertising, as Thomas’ photos from this summer showcase all different configurations, from candid shots of a family sitting down to eat with their kids to a group of young girls speaking with a vendor.

To gain more public awareness, Blum and Hamilton went beyond their online presence and took it to the streets with word-of-mouth communication.

“There was a lot of footwork where we would just hit the streets of Ithaca and walk up to people and be like, ‘Hi, are you local?’ and they would look at us like we were absolutely insane,” Blum said. “Once we told them we were having a flea market, they would be like, ‘Oh wow, that’s great!’”

Many of the vendors were connected to the market through Instagram, which allowed the Backyard Flea to reach the radar of businesses as far as Syracuse.

Syracuse resident Andrew Saltz, owner of vintage shop Salty Vintage, was eager to make the drive down to Ithaca every Wednesday for the Backyard Flea. With more than 10 years of experience selling secondhand clothing, Saltz was very impressed with the Backyard Flea’s debut summer.

“For the first summer that they’re doing this, [Blum] and the rest of the crew definitely did an incredible job putting this together really fast,” Saltz said. “[Blum] is really passionate and it shows. There are a lot of markets I’ve been to in Syracuse and you can tell they’ve been thrown together.”

Fellow Syracuse resident Rocco Leone, owner of Salt City Vintage, also traveled from Syracuse to sell at the Backyard Flea. Leone identified the late-night hours as a possible barrier for some out-of-towners, but also recognized the unique experience the Backyard Flea is looking to offer.

“On a personal level, I work 9–5 p.m., so it’s tougher for me to get out here on a Wednesday,” Leone said. “I imagine on a weekend, [the market] would be just as good, but having a night event is really unique.”

Leone said he enjoyed his time at the Backyard Flea and hopes to continue collaborating moving forward.

“You can tell that there is some sort of community here that has been established,” Leone said. “I think that will only increase as time passes.”

While the Apple Harvest Festival, Porch Festival and Ithaca Farmers Market are all annual events to look forward to, the Backyard Flea is a newfound source of local craftsmanship and vibrant supporter of local businesses.

Contributing reporting from Makai Yllanes