Punk Rock Flea Market: Mainstay of Seattle’s Underground Arts

***This is Part 1 of Samuel’s foray into the Punk Rock Flea Market. Part 2 features an interview.

Capitol Hill's Punk Rock Flea Market has been an underground Seattle staple since 2006, when it was started as a fundraiser for the Low Income Housing Institute.

I had last been to the Punk Rock Flea Market (PRFM) in July, while they were hosting the Seattle Zine Fest. The legendary market is currently hosted at 416 15th Ave E—the retail space of an old QFC. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog's Justin Carder chronicled the PRFM's journey, saying it has filled voids in the community by occupying the retail spaces of at least four shuttered storefronts.

"[The PRFM's] presence has been a marker of sorts for the waves of development that are changing parts of the city but leaving a large central space in the community empty as the public process plays out," writes Carder. This ephemerality is essential to understanding the atmosphere of the space; no two PRFM's are alike. Each pop-up market takes community work to set up. To accomplish this, the market allocates equal space to each of three different groups of vendors: legacy, brand new, and work-trade.

Event organizers are clear about their ethos: "Punk Rock Flea Market encourages diverse vendors selling the widest variety of goods...In general, we seek the participation of tiny locally owned businesses and avoid corporate entities." The market certainly feels like it has a lot of the right ingredients to foster inclusivity and be a safe space for Seattleites, but it has not escaped controversy on that front.

On December 6, 2024, at 2pm, I attended the first day of the most recent PRFM event and paid the $1 price of admission. The first booth that caught my eye was outside. Gia sat behind a table and stand of at least 120 different zines and offered me as many as I wanted to take for free. They were a member of the anarchist distro group Historical Seditions.

I ended up taking a couple of zines, Notes on Mutual Aid Volume 2 and Sabotage Noise Compiled Interviews—both worth reading and having conversations about—and went into the reclaimed QFC. I was there to see the wares, but I was also chasing an artist I had only seen a hint of at the last PRFM.

If one is driving southbound on I-5 through Seattle, just before the Seattle Convention Center there is a venting structure for the express lanes present on the median of the highway. On that structure is an abstract, eerie, yet instantly lovable giant red painted bear entity with a heart next to it. The bear is comprised of one continuous outline done in one long, elaborate motion. A series of curves in this outline dive in and out of the shape of the bear, giving it perspective and a direction to face as well as poise.

That is just one example of similar bears strewn throughout the city, all done in an unmistakable style. As one patron would later say, "Every time I see those bears, I'm just like... They did that with one swoop." At the last PRFM, I had seen one such painted bear sitting on an easel in the back of the market and later decided to do some research.

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***Stay tuned for Part 2, featuring an interview with what and who Samuel found.