Monongahela’s largest street sale returns in October
Observer-Reporter file photo
In this file photo, shoppers browse tables and antique shops along Main Street in Monongahela during the Fleatique on the Mon.
Observer-Reporter file photo
Shoppers browse tables and antique shops along Main Street in Monongahela Saturday afternoon during the Fleatique on the Mon.
Observer-Reporter file photo
Oldenburg sisters Samantha, left, and Sarah organize items for sale in front of their parents’ store on Main Street in Monongahela during the Fleatique on the Mon.
Observer-Reporter file photo
Shoppers browse tables and antique shops along Main Street in Monongahela during the Fleatique on the Mon.
A Monongahela tradition on the first Saturday in October continues this year.
Fall Fleatique on the Mon is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 7 in Monongahela. The street sale will feature crafters, antiques, flea markets and food vendors.
Those who wish to participate must register to do so. Registration fee for crafters, antiques and flea markets is $30 and for food vendors is $45.
“Crafters traditionally go in Chess Park,” said LJ Kahl, the Monongahela Area Chamber of Commerce executive director. “We put antique and flea market vendors on Third Street in downtown. We block that off in between Main and Chess.”
Chess Park will also have concession booths, and food trucks will line the back of the park on Chess Street.
This unique event is the largest street sale in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“It’s from one end of town all the way through New Eagle,” said Heidi Hoffman, owner of Sweets by Mrs. C. “There’s people set up everywhere. It’s huge.”
Fleatique serves as a fundraiser for MACC as the vendors’ registration fee is used to fund some other events the chamber hosts, such as Merry and Bright Night to kick off the holiday season, the Fourth of July fireworks and the annual Halloween parade.
“It’s definitely an important fundraiser,” Kahl said.
Applications are available at the chamber office at 208 W. Main St., or online registration is open at tinyurl.com/fall-fleatique for flea/antique and craft vendors. Food trucks and concessionaires can register at tinyurl.com/fleatiquefood. Applications and fees are due by Sept. 22.
People who live along the route also put out tables of items they’d like to sell as yard sales and garage sales can be plentiful during the fleatique.
Community groups and churches set up tables as well. Businesses from New Eagle and Monongahela run specials, displaying some of their products in front of their shops.
“It can make for a really nice day of shopping,” Kahl said. “It’s definitely become a known and established event for Monongahela. We have vendors that look forward to it every year, and there are people in town that look forward to it and people from out of town who like visiting at that time.”
Monongahela traditionally hosts fleatique events on the first Saturdays in June and October.
Kahl said this year’s June Fleatique on the Mon, the 25th held in the city, was quite successful with more than 70 vendors.
“That was maybe a new record,” she said. “The streets were just filled with people all day. We ended up having more vendors than have historically registered in the past, so we had to put additional people in Chess Park.”
The idea to host a fleatique was hatched when a previous chamber director saw a similar event while on vacation.
“The June Fleatique started when the chamber board of directors were just trying to think of events and ideas to bring people to town and to highlight the shops,” Kahl said. “It started as a sidewalk sale to highlight the antique shops in town, and it grew from there.”
Hoffman, a chamber board of directors member, said she usually does well during the fleatiques.
“As long as it doesn’t rain, from a business standpoint, it’s two of my biggest days of the year,” she said. “To me, it’s very important. People come into town who normally wouldn’t be in town. That gives them an opportunity to walk the town and get that feel of what the town is like but to visit the stores as well. It’s just a fun day. It shows what Monongahela has to offer, which I think is an awful lot.”
The fleatique events, which are held rain or shine, do, indeed, serve as a chance to show off the city of Monongahela.
“It’s maybe kind of easy to forget about the mid-Mon Valley,” Kahl said. “If you’re new and you’ve never been here before, people walk away really impressed because they didn’t know how nice Monongahela is and what a quaint town it is.”