People relax and picnic on mats on a grassy area in front of an outdoor stage. — **Plate I.** Lawn area and music stage, Melrose Trading Post. From melrosetradingpost.org

People sit on mats on the lawn watching a speaker on a stage. — **Plate II.** Greenway Amphitheater stage, Melrose Trading Post. From melrosetradingpost.org

Four dancers in traditional red dresses perform outdoors. — **Plate III.** Dancers performing at Melrose Trading Post. From melrosetradingpost.org

A group of people posing with holiday decorations and a toy drive box. — **Plate IV.** Holiday booth at Melrose Trading Post. From melrosetradingpost.org

A group of people dancing together outdoors near a stage. — **Plate V.** Live performance at Melrose Trading Post. From melrosetradingpost.org

Melrose Trading Post

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Community market; Open every Sunday in 2026.

Details

Map. Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Larger map

Where: 7850 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Directions
When: Every Sunday in 2026; special events include September 27th Latin Heritage Month Poetry with El Martillo Press, October 25th Halloween Dog Costume Contest, and Merry Melrose in December.
Getting there: On the campus of Fairfax High School; customer parking entrance at Fairfax Avenue & Clinton Street (navigate to 544 N Fairfax Avenue, LA, CA 90036); Melrose entrance at Melrose and Ogden; Fairfax entrance through the valet lot.
Fees: In-person tickets $6.00; advance tickets $6.00 plus fees; children under 12 and VIP Pass Members free; last in-person cash ticket sold at 4:45PM.
Hours: Open 10AM-5PM, rain or shine; summer hours 10AM-6PM from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Access: Bicycle racks at Melrose & Genesee and by Greenway Court Theatre; neighborhood parking limits such as 2-hour parking.
Walk-in or reserve: Walk-in admission: buy in person every Sunday at the ticket booths (cash only) or pre-pay online for a scannable ticket; pre-paid tickets are non-refundable but exchangeable for a different market session before scanning.
Phone: 323-804-6821
Website: melrosetradingpost.org
Managed by: Greenway Arts Alliance.
Established: 1997.

Every Sunday from 10 in the morning until 5, rain or shine, the Melrose Trading Post sets up on the parking lots and upper quad of Fairfax High School, where Melrose and Fairfax avenues cross in Los Angeles. From Memorial Day to Labor Day it runs until 6. Admission is $6, paid in cash at the ticket booths. Inside are handcrafted goods, vintage clothing, antique furniture, original art, jewelry and textiles. The number of sellers depends on the page doing the counting: the market’s home page gives more than 250 local makers, its About page 260, and a Greenway Arts Alliance page 275.

The grounds are divided into colored sections and numbered spaces. In the purple section, Stephanie of Tula Trading sources and makes everything she sells, including upcycled baby tees, quilt vests and fringe jeans, and in fall, witch hats. She has taken to stopping shoppers in the aisles with one question: “What are you wearing?” In space R25, poets of the LA Poet Society offer typewriter poetry. One of them, Hope Cerna, also sells Sentimental Garden, a collection about her mother. The society’s poets read on the outdoor stage on the last Sunday of each month.

Sundays in the Red Section

Food trucks, food booths and drink stands are spread across the market, with snacks near both entrances. The main cluster sits in the Red Section, around the Greenway Main Stage. Fareed and Jennis have run Melrose Mixology, a cold brew and tea stand in the food court, since 2013. Dilan of Dilan’s Caribbean Grill, who serves vegan dishes among others, says a man from Jamaica named Stone gave him his first chance at his own food business here in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “And if you just want to people watch and have a taco, you can do that too,” co-founder Whitney Weston told the Beverly Press in 2021.

Each Sunday on the main stage opens at 11 a.m. with a wellness session included in admission. On the first and third Sundays it is Wellness Through Words from Eclectuals Book Market, where LToya Wilson leads poetry, journaling, coloring and mindfulness exercises. On the second and fourth Sundays it is the Intermission Sound Bath, led by Dr. Kischa, with a meditation by Jasmine Galindo of Cranes Studio. Local bands play from 12:30 to 4:45. The market’s visitor page credits the weekly line-up to drummer and Music Coordinator Martin Diller, while its contact page lists Jena Fakroddin in that post.

A typical day was Sunday, October 4, 2026. Dr. Meryah A. Fisher led an intuitive poetry-writing meditation at 11. The band Strange Hotels followed at 12:30 and Dana McCoy at 3. From noon to 3, DJ VFRESH spun records in the blue section beside Prizm Coffee. On September 27, 2026, the market marked Hispanic Heritage Month with salsa lessons from the Solina Entertainment Dancers, live music by La Compañía and Nancy Sanchez, the Greenway Fairfax Dance Team, and readings by poets of El Martillo Press.

A vigil at ten, then dogs on the runway

That same September 27 morning was set aside for Patrick Weinbrecht. He had managed the market’s vendor team since 2010. Friends, past vendors and former Greenway staff gathered at a community altar and vigil. Those who could not come were asked to keep a minute of silence wherever they were at 10 a.m.

His name now goes on one of the prizes at the dog costume contest, which the market began in 2022 and holds on the Sunday before Halloween. The fifth contest is set for Sunday, October 25, 2026. At 11:30 a costumed parade, joined by adoptable dogs from partner rescues, sets off from the Fairfax entrance and winds through the market. Anyone with a dog may walk in it. At noon, up to 40 entrants cross the Greenway Main Stage. Only handmade costumes can win prizes. The categories are Best Float, Best Human/Dog Duo, Best in Show and the Patrick Weinbrecht Community Favorite. A year earlier, the favorite award carried the name of Kobe the Miracle Mile MoMo, a dog the market’s page says was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Pickle, the Drag Laureate of the City of West Hollywood, hosts and sings her Halloween number “Monsters In The Closet!” Ronald Wilson has judged every contest since the first. He is a pageant-world designer and longtime vendor whose Rhinestone Master Creations sells bedazzled collars for dogs and cats. In December the market turns over to Merry Melrose.

Much of the daily work falls to Fairfax students. In 2021 the market employed 40 of them, who received coaching in customer service, job interviews and résumés. Emily Renteria began as one of those student workers in 2019 and is now on the administrative staff.

Two parents and a principal

The founders, Pierson Blaetz and Whitney Weston, were actors. Blaetz had come to Los Angeles from Pennsylvania in 1991. According to KPCC’s The Frame, Weston came from the Midwest. In the mid-1990s they looked at Fairfax High and saw an audience of students for theater and parking lots that might hold a weekend bazaar. That bazaar could catch the crowds already shopping at the nearby Farmers Market. After months of unreturned calls, in 1997 they went to a Parent-Teacher Association meeting to meet the principal, Carol Truscott.

“We thought there was going to be this big library full of parents with lots of ideas,” Weston recalled. Instead they found two parents and the principal at a table. “3,600 students and there were two parents sitting in that meeting!” Blaetz said. Truscott remembered her own first impression: “I looked out and I saw these two young kids and I said, They cannot be parents of kids at my school!” Weston said the room was wary, since people from the neighborhood usually came to complain. “We were like, Cool, let’s do some theater!” she said. “And they were like, No, we need money.”

Blaetz remembered that Fairfax High had once hosted a flea market. The plan was to hold one in the parking lot a single time as a fundraiser. “Pierson had the idea, let’s do it every week,” Weston said. They organized it through their nonprofit, then called New Attitude Productions. The first market opened on Sunday, October 26, 1997. The Greenway timeline records student volunteers and about 75 vendors that day. Blaetz recalls “maybe 40,” with the two founders out on the street handing out free lemonade and calling, “Come on in.” The early money paid for basics. “Literally, we were buying books and desk chairs,” Blaetz said.

From a social hall to the upper quad

The campus is older than the market by seven decades. Fairfax High School opened on September 8, 1924, at Melrose and Fairfax. It was named for Lord Fairfax of colonial America, and Rae G. Van Cleve was its first principal. The school was first conceived as an agricultural and mechanical school, and Parkinson & Parkinson laid out its 28 acres in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. A Rotunda with a statue of Abraham Lincoln was dedicated in 1938. When the original buildings were torn down in the 1960s over earthquake safety, the Rotunda and the D. S. Swan Auditorium were kept and retrofitted. The Los Angeles Conservancy lists the school as Culturally Significant and Eligible for the California Register.

In 1939 Fairfax students built a social hall as a class project. It was dedicated in 1942 as Greenway Court, after Lord Fairfax’s Court in Virginia. The hall stood north of the athletic field and was moved in the 1990s to its present spot facing Fairfax Avenue. KPCC describes it as a 1940s-era hall long abandoned on the edge of campus. In 1998 the founders asked to renovate it, and Truscott backed the request. They renamed their nonprofit the Greenway Arts Alliance after the building. Theatre and set designer James Eric led the work, paid for with box-office receipts and booth rents. “You’re used to going in through a window if the door is locked,” Blaetz said. Greenway Court Theatre opened in 2000 with 99 seats and the world premiere of Jose Rivera’s Sonnets for an Old Century.

The market grew alongside the theater:

2003: 160 vendors, with 18 students employed to lead hundreds of weekly volunteers.
2004: Features in Lucky, Vogue, Jane and Home and Garden.
2012: After its best attendance year on record, a new permit raised the count from 180 vendors to 240 and opened the upper quad. On November 4 the market unveiled an expanded food court with picnic-blanket seating and a new raised music stage. The same year, proceeds helped open the school’s $14 million football stadium.
2013: The Stanford Social Innovation Review reported more than $6 million earned since 1996, split evenly between Greenway and the school.
2017: The 20th anniversary on October 8 drew 245 vendors, and admission was $3. Angelyne arrived with her pink Corvette.
2020: After the coronavirus shutdown, the market reopened on August 2 with masks, temperature checks and fewer visitors.
2021: The Beverly Press put the total raised at $10 million, half of it to the school.
2022: Greenway counted more than $10 million in grants to Fairfax student programs and close to 30,000 students reached by its arts teaching. The 25th anniversary that October brought a live painting by Melrose street artists Amy Smith, Corie Mattie and Juliano Trindade, and Fairfax students sang from Hamilton.

Some careers began at the booths. Photographer Gray Malin sold his first prints here. A balcony shot of sunbathers around a pool led him to photograph beaches from a helicopter, and later to a bestselling book called Beaches. Jonathan Rozelle managed the Sunday market as a Fairfax student and later became a television reporter in Little Rock, Arkansas. The market’s own Celebrity Hall of Fame records that Taylor Swift bought a handmade bench from maker Lester Anderson in 2011. Its blog tells of Marta, who has sold here with her family since the earliest days and met her husband, Bill, among the stalls.

“It really makes the school part of the community,” Truscott said, “and not just that school on Melrose Boulevard.”

Notable Events

1924On Sept. 8, 1924, Fairfax High School first opened its doors at the intersection of Melrose and Fairfax avenues. beverlypress.com
1930sThe market's own blog post on the Rotunda's tilework says this building is one of the only original buildings from the 1930s left on campus after the earthquakes that have hit LA since then. melrosetradingpost.org
1938The Rotunda on the Fairfax High School campus, complete with a statue of Abraham Lincoln, was dedicated in 1938. fairfaxhs.lausd.org
1939Greenway Court on the Fairfax High campus was initially built by Fairfax High School students in 1939 as a class project and used as a Social Hall by both students and faculty. greenwayartsalliance.org
1942Greenway Court, the Fairfax Social Hall named after Lord Fairfax's Court in Virginia, was dedicated; it was built north of the athletic field and later moved to its present location on Fairfax Avenue. fairfaxhs.lausd.org
1960sMuch of the campus's original structures were demolished in the 1960s over earthquake safety concerns, although the rotunda and the D. S. Swan Auditorium were saved, retrofitted and renovated. beverlypress.com
1990sThe campus building that Greenway Arts Alliance turned into its theatre was originally constructed as a student project, began as a social hall, and was moved in the 1990s to its present location, facing Fairfax Avenue. beverlypress.com
1997Blaetz recalls about 40 vendors at the start, with the two founders handing out free lemonade on the street to draw people in; over time more vendors showed up and they built out the market. beverlypress.com
1997The weekly flea market opens as Melrose Trading Post on Sunday, October 26, 1997 with student volunteers and about 75 vendors: many local artists and startup businesses. greenwayartsalliance.org
1997Blaetz says the money first raised at the trading post went to basic resources for the school, literally books and desk chairs. laist.com
1997Weston and Blaetz proposed doing some theater, but were told the school needed money; they decided to do the trading post in the parking lot once, and the one-time flea market idea became a standing tradition. laist.com
1997After months of unreturned calls, Blaetz and Weston attended a Parent-Teacher Association meeting to meet then-principal Carol Truscott, who was at first suspicious because people usually came to her with complaints, not offers to help. ssir.org
1998The founders discover an empty building called Greenway Court, built by Fairfax students in 1939, request to renovate it into a theatre space, and rename their arts non-profit Greenway Arts Alliance in honor of the building. greenwayartsalliance.org
1998Melrose Trading Post student leadership programming begins weekly, with volunteer Fairfax student clubs and organizations leading the day-to-day operations alongside Greenway staff. greenwayartsalliance.org
2000After sitting unused for years, Greenway Court was renovated into a professional theatre by Greenway Arts Alliance in 2000, to benefit both the school and the surrounding community. greenwayartsalliance.org
2000In 2000 the school's neglected social hall was turned into a 99-seat theater under a special agreement: Greenway would renovate it, in exchange for being able to use it for shows. ssir.org
2003Melrose Trading Post celebrates 5 years, expanding to 160 vendors, and employs 18 Fairfax students to lead hundreds of weekly volunteers. greenwayartsalliance.org
2004Melrose Trading Post is featured in Lucky, Vogue, Jane and Home and Garden magazines. greenwayartsalliance.org
2006Zubiate became Fairfax's principal and helped create a development office, whose mandate was not just to raise money but to establish and sustain relationships with neighbors, businesses and government. ssir.org
2012Melrose Trading Post expands to include Fairfax High's upper quad and increases to 240 artisan and vintage vendors, with CBS News and Travel and Leisure magazine listing it as one of the best flea markets in the country. greenwayartsalliance.org
2012Fairfax High School's capital campaign, conducted with Friends of Fairfax, ends with the opening of a $14 million football stadium also supported in part by proceeds from Melrose Trading Post. greenwayartsalliance.org
2012After its best year on record for attendance, the market used a newly approved permit to expand from 180 vendors to 240 vendors each Sunday. melrosetradingpost.org
2012The market unveiled an expanded food court with a picnic blanket seating area, a new elevated live music stage, more food and beverage choices and more table seating. melrosetradingpost.org
2013Melrose Trading Post is listed 18th on Trip Advisor’s 100 Top Things to do in Los Angeles, and attendance jumps to thousands of patrons per week. greenwayartsalliance.org
2013Stanford Social Innovation Review reported that the Melrose Trading Post, the eclectic market in the Fairfax parking lot, has generated more than $6 million in income since 1996, with proceeds evenly split between Greenway and Fairfax. ssir.org
2014Since 2014, MTP's community arts programming has expanded to include Story Time in the Garden, vendor led art & wellness workshops, poetry readings and local musicians. greenwayartsalliance.org
2014Greenway Arts Alliance creates its arts accessibility initiative Greenway Go, designed to increase arts programming at Greenway Court Theatre, arts education opportunities through the Greenway Institute for the Arts, and cultural performances at Melrose Trading Post. greenwayartsalliance.org
2017Greenway celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special event at the Melrose Trading Post and Greenway is honored with declarations from the City of Los Angeles. greenwayartsalliance.org
2020The market reopened Sunday, Aug. 2 with masks or face coverings required, symptom screening and temperature checks for vendors and staff, enforced physical distancing, reduced visitor capacity and enhanced cleaning. beverlypress.com
2021Blaetz announced that the Melrose Trading Post's educational mission was expanding beyond Fairfax High to work with local elementary and middle schools, and that a California State University, Los Angeles professor would study the market's business model. beverlypress.com
2021The trading post has raised $10 million, half of which has gone directly to the school and the other half to the nonprofit Greenway Arts Alliance, which provides students' opportunities in drama, spoken word and theatrical performance. beverlypress.com
2022The market has awarded more than $10 million worth of grants directly to Fairfax High student programs and provided close to 30,000 students with access to arts education they might not have had otherwise. beverlypress.com
2022The market's dog costume contest, held the Sunday before Halloween, began in 2022, and longtime vendor Ronald Wilson has judged it every year since. melrosetradingpost.org
2026The market's blog invited friends and family, including past vendors and Greenway staff, to remember MTP Vendor Manager Patrick Weinbrecht on Sunday, September 27th with a community altar and vigil. melrosetradingpost.org
The market presented its 25th anniversary celebration from 11:30 to 1 p.m., with a live painting collaboration, a pre-show doggie costume contest, addresses by elected officials and a Fairfax High School student song performance from “Hamilton.”. beverlypress.com

People

Lisa Richards, honored with the Greenway Arts Alliance's Arts Leadership Award at the anniversary celebration (2017).
Pierson Blaetz, Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Greenway Arts Alliance; board member of The Melrose Business Improvement District and Friends of Fairfax (co-founded 1997).
Shareen Mitchell, fashion designer and former Melrose Trading Post vendor honored with the Melrose Trading Post Visionary Award.
Steve Mendillo, honored with the Greenway Arts Alliance's Arts Leadership Award at the anniversary celebration (2017).
Whitney Weston, Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Greenway Arts Alliance, the nonprofit that runs the market (co-founded 1997).
Amy Smith, Melrose Avenue street artist in a live painting collaboration at the market (2022).
Corie Mattie, Melrose Avenue street artist in a live painting collaboration at the market (2022).
Juliano Trindade, Melrose Avenue street artist in a live painting collaboration at the market (2022).
James Eric, veteran theatre and set designer who led the renovation of Greenway Court into Greenway Court Theatre, on the campus where the market is held.
Carol Truscott, then-principal of Fairfax High School whom the founders met at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting before the trading post began.
Jonathan Rozelle, Fairfax High student who worked at the market and managed the Sunday shopping outpost, an Alliance alumnus (Twenty years ago).
Martin Diller, drummer and MTP Music Coordinator who curates the market's weekly line-up.
Alexander Crespo, Melrose Trading Post vendor in Booth B116 (in 2000).
Bill Mitchell, longtime Melrose Trading Post vendor in B143 (June 2024).
Ella Whitfield, Melrose Trading Post vendor in booth B23 (in 2007).
Lester Anderson, maker whose handmade bench was bought at the Melrose Trading Post by Taylor Swift (2011).
Miguel, Melrose Trading Post vendor at the Grandma's Closet booth (in August 2024).
Ronald Wilson, designer behind Rhinestone Master Creations and a longtime Melrose Trading Post vendor; judge of the market's dog costume contest every year since it began.
Fareed, with Jennis, owner of Melrose Mixology, the cold brew, tea and beverage stand in the MTP Food Court (since 2013).
Marta, vendor selling at the Melrose Trading Post with her family since the earliest days of the market; met her husband Bill there (nearly 30 years).
Pickle, host and master of ceremonies of the market's dog costume contest and parade (host in 2026).
Emily Renteria, Administrative Associate; began at the market as a Fairfax High School student worker (since 2019).
Gus Klein, PM Operations Manager; afternoon Operations Manager at Melrose Trading Post.
J. Scott Shonka, Operations & Safety Manager of the market (managing MTP operations since 2012).
Jose Cruz, Vendor Booking Coordinator on the market's vendor team.
Natalie Iturbe Jackson, Special Events & Marketing Manager; established the market's vendor booking systems and curates its merchandise (with Greenway since 2011).
Patrick Weinbrecht, Vendor Booking Manager; manages the MTP Vendor Team (began 2010).
Ed Zubiate, Fairfax High School principal from 2006 who helped create the development office that the trading post's profits supported (retired as principal this spring).
Joyce Kleifield, Fairfax's development director, a post hired with profits from the Melrose Trading Post.
Steve Zimmer, Los Angeles Unified school board member whose district includes Fairfax High, speaking about the partnership.