Organizers say up to 2,000 may come to Cape downtown flea market Sunday

The Tailgate Flea Market returns Sunday to downtown Cape Girardeau. Parking lots on either side of Main Street will be filled with treasure-seekers as vendors offer a trove of antiques, collectibles, repurposed furniture, plants and other items.

The Downtown Merchants Group arranged two Tailgate Flea Market events last year and intend to carry on the biannual tradition this year in light of its growing popularity.

"It's mushroomed," Paula Haas, president of the Downtown Merchant Group and owner of Somewhere in Time Antiques, said. "The first two were easy to get done. This one took a committee."

Marti Hartle, owner of Free Spirit Studios, is a member of that committee and has been involved with the flea market from its inception.

She said the first Tailgate Flea Market had 19 vendors and brought in about 200 shoppers.

The second flea market, she said, had 40 vendors and about 500 shoppers.

But this weekend, 104 vendors will take to the sold-out parking lots on Main Street's corners at Broadway and Independence Street to sell their wares.

"We have vendors coming from Louisville and Little Rock," Haas said. "And some will come from central Illinois and St. Louis. And then we'll have our local vendors."

Haas expects 1,500 to 2,000 shoppers to come to the event.

Several local downtown businesses also will open their stores early so shoppers can stop in as they move between parking lots.

"Our goal was to have booths at either end and people walking from one end to the other, and downtown shops and restaurants benefiting from it as well," Haas said.

The Downtown Merchant Group is a collection of merchants focused on building awareness of its member businesses and all downtown Cape Girardeau has to offer, Haas said. The money raised by events such as the flea market, or their 2014 "Gone Girl"-themed scavenger hunt, helps pay for promotion and advertising.

Haas is thrilled with the success of the flea markets, and the growth they have seen. She has received suggestions, she said, of quarterly events rather than biannual.

"But I want them to feel special," Haas said. "I don't want them to be the norm."

Though weather forecast calls for rain Sunday, Haas is optimistic. But in the case of a downpour, she said, the event will be rescheduled, and all vendor reservations will carry over to the new date.

The Tailgate Flea Market will begin at 8 a.m., and end at 4 p.m.

"It will be a great Sunday," Haas said. "People can go to church, and then come to the flea market."

bbrown@semissourian.com

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