Shopping may be a year-round sport, but spring’s warm temperatures beg for a more leisurely approach to America’s second favorite pastime. May marks the unofficial start of flea market season, when the most devoted junk-lovers will hit the countryside in search of objects with a favorable cost-to-character ratio. The place they all talk about going? Brimfield.
For half a century, this small Massachusetts town has been the site of one of the most popular antique fairs in the country, occurring three times a year (in May, July and September). What was once just an outcrop of tents along Route 20 has now grown to include thousands of vendors, essentially becoming a trade show. The dealers that aren’t selling come to buy, and haul off their wares by the truckload. Then there are designers — set designers, interior designers, fashion designers — who are known to snatch the good stuff early, leaving nothing but a trail of ‘sold’ signs in their wake. Chances are that rusting birdcage in the window of your neighborhood Anthropologie store or those salt-kissed lobster pots behind the register at Ralph Lauren came from Brimfield.
But the fact that this market attracts the best of the best shouldn’t dissuade non-pros from making the the pilgrimage. Brimfield has become the Coachella of flea markets; it’s a scene, an event for shoppers, people watchers, and those who come just to take in the collective enthusiasm for all things pre-loved.
With 21 fields (each about 4 acres) of stuff, walking away empty-handed is near impossible. In fact, the downside is really the regrets that are sure to follow you home: the bistro chairs/seltzer bottles/Louis XIV daybed you didn’t buy. It’s a kind of reverse buyer’s remorse, and just the kind of sentiment that will have you returning for more next year.
The Brimfield Antiques Show takes place May 8-13, July 10-15, and September 4-9, 2011.
Heading to Brimfield? Why not make it a weekend in the country? The Blantyre in Lenox is about an hour from Brimfield and if you take Route 20, the drive is quite scenic.
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