Top Tips for the Rose Bowl Flea Market

By: Lanie Brice ‘24

This past weekend, after months of looking forward to it, I finally visited the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. It was at the top of my LA bucket list, and I was so excited. Finally going made me realize that even with quite a bit of research, there were still so many things I wish I knew before I decided to go to the market, so I compiled my top tips to hopefully answer any questions you might have about going!

Get Cash Before You Go

Cash is becoming less and less a part of our everyday lives with some stores and restaurants no longer accepting it at all, but it still rules the Rose Bowl, which I was totally unprepared for. I had my $10 exactly in cash for the admission fee ready to go (there were a number of people who weren’t able to get in around me because they didn’t have exact cash), but I wasn’t expecting that vendors mainly look for cash too. If you’re serious about bringing something home with you at the end of the day, make sure you have enough cash on hand since lines at ATMs can get quite long.

Pack a Bag and Be Prepared

Even going in February, my friend and I contended with temperatures over 85 degrees, even in the morning. Since the entire market takes place on asphalt, the heat is amplified, meaning that packing a water bottle is absolutely a must. There are places to get snacks around the market, but I recommend packing your own that are easy to eat while walking since there aren’t many places to sit and have a picnic. Also, make sure you pack a couple tote bags if you plan on shopping for clothes or smaller items as you’ll need a way to carry your new finds home.

Wear Quality Walking Shoes (and a Note on Taking RideShare)

Dress for tons of walking! The Rose Bowl is not the place to wear your cutest shoes or your brand new pair that you’ve been meaning to break in. There is going to be tons and tons of walking at the Rose Bowl, even outside of the market itself. The free parking lot is far from the entrance if you drive yourself, and if you take rideshare, there will likely be even more walking to find a suitable drop off or pick up point.

Because there is no dedicated rideshare pick up point, my friend and I ended up walking a long way uphill out of the Rose Bowl Stadium grounds and towards a neighborhood to find a safe and easy spot to call a ride home. That was an added layer of walking that I didn’t anticipate and is a good thing to know if you’re trying to decide on how to get to the market.

On a similar note on getting ready, if you plan to shop for clothes, dress so that it’s easy to pull on clothes under or over because there aren’t dressing rooms available.

The Sections to Check Out

The two most popular areas of the Rose Bowl are the orange and white areas. The orange area has antique furniture and other household items (and oddly, a giant amount of vintage dolls: from Cabbage Patch Kids, Teletubby dolls, Madame Alexander dolls, and even a Chucky one). Then the white area, which is just across the ditch, is where the clothing booths are set up. These booths range from tents full of T-shirt filled bins to dig through for $5, to aesthetic booths full of trendy clothes for upwards of $100. When I was planning my trip, I thought that these sections would be more completely divided along the map lines, but many of the booths selling furniture or dishes in the orange area also had racks of clothing.

Other sections of the market include blue, pink, and red areas for new merchandise, and arts and crafts in the purple area.

The Rose Bowl Is Quite Big, But Can Be Done in Any Time Frame

The amount of time the Rose Bowl takes really varies based on which areas you’re interested in visiting and how much time you plan on taking to sift through each of the booths. While the market is over 7 miles in total, I was able to walk the orange and white sections pretty thoroughly in just about an hour. It sounds dauntingly large online, but it’s pretty easy to identify which booths fit your style and would be interesting to go through which saves lots of time. You can really get an overview of the market as quickly or slowly as you would like or have time for.

Prepare For Crowds

While my friend assured me that the crowd was “not bad” in comparison to New York City Christmas markets, I still found it quite claustrophobic to navigate. There are tons and tons of people who come out every month, and the most popular parts of the market get quite clogged up. The walkways between booths are quite narrow and it can be hard to navigate at times, so if you are sensitive to crowds, definitely take that into account before you go.

The Deals Greatly Vary

One thing I was surprised about was that the deals are pretty disappointing. Certain booths had great finds, especially when it comes to T-shirts, but I generally found the vintage clothing selection pretty underwhelming. Everything I was interested in turned out to be over $100 for items in far from perfect condition. I walked away feeling like I would’ve had a better time going to Goodwill or even Buffalo Exchange and finding great deals on items I loved. Also, it’s important to note that most items don’t have price tags, so you have to be able to find the seller to enquire about prices. I ended up walking away empty handed and pretty disappointed after how much the Rose Bowl had been built up for me in my mind, but how you’ll find it really depends on your budget and personal style.

It is a Traditional Flea Market

I went to Melrose Trading Post a couple weekends before, and it has a very different vibe from the Rose Bowl. Melrose is a very curated version of what a flea market or trading post is. Each booth has a specific feel and caters to distinct clientele. It also mixes together artists, jewelry makers, and clothing sellers into the same aisles which creates a really fun, eclectic experience. The Rose Bowl Flea Market has some similarly high prices, but the booths have much less of a specific point of view. Many sell household items, clothing, and furniture in one booth. Oftentimes, clothes are much more packed on racks and harder to sift through, and it’s harder to asses what a booth has just from walking by. The Rose Bowl offers a much more traditional thrifting experience in the amount of time and sweat required, but you might not see the same rewards in the prices as most flea markets are known for.

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