Durango Flea Market

On Sunday mornings from May into November, red and yellow signs mark the corner of Main Avenue and 25th Street in Durango, and the lots of the La Plata County Fairgrounds fill with tables, canopies, and vendors’ cars. Each selling space is the width of a standard parking space and a little longer. A vendor may keep the vehicle in the space or move it to the public lot before the 7 a.m. opening. When the market closes at about 3 p.m., the cars come back in to be loaded. Parking for shoppers is free.

The goods run to tools, clothing, jewelry, furniture, antiques, collectibles, plants, home decor, and handmade work. A 2019 notice in Durango Downtown promised “everything secondhand from funky to functional.” The market’s own pages say a shopper can often find street food while browsing.

There is no electricity on the lot for vendors or shoppers. Restrooms stand at the north end of the vendor area. Dogs come on leashes, and the market asks owners to bring them water and to protect their paws from the hot asphalt. It reminds everyone else to bring a water bottle and sunscreen. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and firearms are not sold.

John Dunn and the Dunn Deal

John Dunn runs the market. On market mornings he or his staff meet arriving vendors at the entry point and point them to open spaces. The rest of the week Dunn keeps the Dunn Deal Resale Store, up the street at 3101 Main Avenue. The market’s website sends anyone who wants to speak with him in person to the store, which is closed Thursdays and open 11 to 4 on Sundays. Dunn was the vendors’ contact in 2019 as well, when Durango Downtown printed the store’s number and his email address.

The fairgrounds on North Main

The lots belong to a 32-acre county property in the heart of Durango, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beyond the vendor rows are a 10,000-square-foot exhibit hall and the Fred W. Klatt III Arena, with 1,600 grandstand seats. There is also a 33,000-square-foot pavilion for livestock shows and exercising horses, two baseball fields, and a picnic shelter that seats 60. The county fair and Fiesta Days are held here, and the market gives way when the grounds are wanted. In the 2026 season it did not open on July 12, during the annual gem and mineral show, on August 9, during the county fair, or on September 6, during the motorcycle rally.

The county commissioners accepted a master plan for the fairgrounds on February 25, 2025. The planning drew more than 550 responses to a community survey and three community workshops. The county’s fairgrounds page says the property will close for a paving project from April 17 to May 23 of the following year, 2027.

Snow cones and space fees

The season has shifted from year to year. In 2019 the market ran every Sunday from April 14 through November 3, weather permitting, and a space cost $15. A Durango.com listing gave the 2023 run as June 11 through October 29. The 2026 season opened May 3, moved to winter hours after September 20 with an 8 a.m. opening, and closes November 1. A first space now costs $25.

The $15 fee figured in a letter from Greg Conners of Durango, published in the Durango Herald on July 15, 2017. For many years, he wrote, food vendors at the market had to be licensed and insured, but in the past couple of years unlicensed sellers had come in. “All they have to do is pay their $15 space fee and start selling food,” he wrote. “Even the snow cone vendor had to be licensed to sell his snow cones.” He reported that a licensed, insured hot dog vendor had left that season because he could not compete. Conners called on San Juan Basin Health to act and said he would boycott the market “until it takes public health a little more seriously.”