The St. Louis Swap Meet is having a grand opening of its riverfront location below the Gateway Arch this weekend. The new monthly event is a partnership of the St Louis Swap Meet and Great Rivers Greenway.
The vendors' fair will continue to meet every first and last Sunday of the month on Cherokee Street, where it started last year. It will be on the riverfront the third Saturday and Sunday through October.
Mel Lambert is one of the swap meet organizers. She says she hopes the event will be a weekend stop for locals and tourists alike.
“It’ll be a little more intimate. It’s going to be a lot more of the handmade items from people in St. Louis. We just really want the marketplace to be a place where people can come down, hang out, eat, chill, and shop down on the riverfront.”
This weekend’s events will include life-size foosball games put on by the Great American Human Foosball of St. Louis.
Regulars of the swap meet will also recognize local vendors selling their wares, which range from the edible to the antique to the fantastic.
Vendor Mollie Nickelson says she's excited to be there this weekend with her business Twinkle Brews. Nickelson sells beer bottles upcycled as candle holders for candles scented like the original brews.
“The stouts will have chocolate and coffee smells and fruity ones range from all over the place. I try to keep as close to the beer as possible, of what people had smelled in it," Nickelson said.
The event also offers drinkable ales at its biergarten, provided by Urban Chestnut Brewing Company.
In addition to local crafts, food and drink are plentiful at the event.
Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream will be bringing its Fire and Ice Cream truck, serving hand dipped cones and ice cream sandwiches.
Serendipity owner Beckie Jacobs recently purchased the fire truck.
"When the owners — who are friends of mine — posted that they were selling the truck, I didn't skip a beat. I called them right away. I was still at the airport because I was out of town in Columbus," Jacobs said.
Jacobs' impulse buy can now be seen regularly at City Garden on weekdays and at the Riverfront Market.
The swap meet is open Saturday and Sunday, on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
