The Somerville Flea is now open every Sunday in Davis Square now through mid-October. ~ Photo courtesy of Somerville Flea

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

Local Somerville resident Greg Ghazil is the founder and operations director for The Somerville Flea, a local flea market. Open for the last 10 years, the market has grown and become a large part of the Davis Square community every August.

This August, the Flea was back for its 10th year. Opening on August 7, the Somerville Flea has now been open for the last three weeks. Happening every Sunday in Davis Square, a plethora of vendors and live music acts dot the market.

According to Ghazil, the flea began out of a school project and the lack of markets like these in the local area. “One of the things we had to do is find antique and vintage tools in order to do some of the work projects or school projects we had to do. In order to do that I had to go to different flea markets, but I always found that I was traveling pretty far away to go do that to either Bromfield or up in New Hampshire,” Ghazil said.

One of the sellers that has been a part of the flea since day one has been Wiley from High Energy Vintage, a local store. For them the flea is a great opportunity to be in the community. “It’s a great flea market in the center of Somerville,” Wiley said. “I do it as a way to both advertise for my store and to sell things while I’m there. I think a lot of people when they see my setup there they think about going to my store.

At first the Somerville Flea mainly consisted of vintage sellers, now with the success of the flea, various small businesses and sellers come to Ghazil to be a part of the flea market. For him, the flea is a low-risk investment for the sellers.

“Especially around here in Somerville where rents are so high for storefronts and insurance and all of those other things are so high. The flea offers a great opportunity for minimal investment and minimal risk,” Ghazil said.

When asked, Wiley agreed with Ghazil’s statements. “Greg has kept the fee for doing the market very, very reasonable. I mean the other markets that I do are over $100 dollars to set up at and this one’s less,” Wiley said.

Looking ahead towards the next 10 years, Ghazal has an optimistic outlook regarding the future of the flea. For him, bouncing back from the effects of COVID is important for the future of the flea. “We’re pretty confined to what we have as far as space is concerned so expanding is something we are not interested in,” Ghazil said. “We wanna keep going with helping the small business person and the person who is taking a risk and investing on themselves.”

The Somerville Flea is open Sundays, through mid-October. For more information and list of sellers visit: https://www.thesomervilleflea.com.