Earlier this summer, a few of us hopped into a car and drove to western Massachusetts to attend the largest outdoor antique show in country: the Brimfield Antique Shows. A bit of background: For three weeks a year, the fine town of Brimfield, Massachusetts, plays host to 5,000 antique vendors in 21 individual show fields all clustered along a one mile stretch of local highway. The pictures I’m posting today are from the one in May 2010, but the next one is the first week in September, and I can’t wait!
Each of the three weeks (one each in May, July, and September) can bring in over 130,000 visitors. We so did not know what we were getting into:
I am happy to report that Brimfield is one large, crowded, hectic, and wonderful place! Every tent was crammed to the rafters with interesting stuff, and everywhere you went there were smells of dusty furniture, exhaust from the moving vans, and kettle corn and hot dogs from the food carts. At the time, I happened to be rereading the Harry Potter series, and I was reminded strongly of the tent cities that sprang up around the Quidditch World Cup, because the vendors bring their tents or their trailers and basically live back in the woods behind the field where they were selling their wares.
“Anything and everything a chap can unload…”
Since its become a little bit of a meme this summer for some of my favorite bloggers to write posts about their experiences at Brimfield, I was inspired to do the same. I fancied myself a roving reporter for Allsorts Makery, honing in on all things red and aqua:
The ladies of The Fish House were so amazingly nice, and their food was delicious. The woman behind the window told me she painted the signs for her cart herself, and that she might be selling them at the next fair. Let’s all hope so!
Each plot was set up differently. Sometimes things were just paid out on tarps on the ground, while others had built tents that felt like freestanding homes. Americana was everywhere.
Sometimes its just easier to say what it does as opposed to what it is.
More miscellaneous interesting things. See my flickr set here. Thanks to Julie for also taking awesome pictures!
One Comment
The entire staff here at Allsorts Makery thanks you for your excellent report!