Rivot Magazine and D20 Burlesque are hosting Bucks County’s first ever Punk Rock Flea Market on Sunday. The market will have over 35 vendors selling records, clothing, art, jewelry, up-cycled goods, goth decor, and more from 12 to 6 p.m. in the basement of Hops/Scotch bar in Doylestown. After a day of shopping, the punk rock festivities continue with live music and burlesque in the evening for those 18 years old and up.
Punk rock flea markets have popped up around the area in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The alternative markets feature art, clothing, crafts, music, and live tattooing. Anja Keister, founder of D20 Burlesque, and James Lamb, founder of Rivot Magazine, organized Bucks County’s first punk rock flea market in an effort to promote accessible, human art.
Keister, an event producer, moved back to the area after living in England and New York and was looking for punk rock flea markets to sell her art. Keister noticed surrounding areas hosted punk rock flea markets and realized she could create her own for Bucks. Siren Records connected her with Lamb and the two began planning the flea market in late October-early November.
The sponsors, Siren Records and The Tiny Couch – Music for a Cause and Community, have been instrumental in spreading the word about the event to the community.
Lamb’s connections as local business owner of Evolution Candy in Doylestown helped secure the venue and Keister’s social media work brought in vendors. Keister said she, as a queer woman herself, was focused on finding an inclusive group of vendors.
“I feel like in the punk rock, in the alternative, in the goth world, it can often be very exclusionary of women, of people of color, of disabled people,” said Keister. “So I specifically was putting out a call to try to get that kind of representation.”
She said they made sure to find vendors creating unique crafts and goods often not found at an art market. Keister emphasized looking for vendors selling handmade crafts and excluding AI art and mass-produced 3D-printed products.
“It all had to kind of be like originals, and it had to speak to something alternative, outside of, kind of like the mainstream stuff,” Keister said.
The flea market will have booths for local progressive organizations, including Planned Parenthood, The Rainbow Room, Yardley Indivisible, Bucks Stands Up, and BuxMontgomery Democratic Socialists.
The flea market is open to all and is free to enter with a suggested $5 donation or two cans of food donation. The donations go toward the Bucks County Housing Group’s Doylestown Food Bank.
Lamb and Keister first agreed the flea market would double as a charity when they started planning around the time the federal shutdown impacted SNAP benefits for Bucks County recipients.
“My ethos of punk is, you care for the community,” she said. “You help lift up the people who are trodden down.”
In an effort to make art and artisan crafts accessible to the community, vendors at the flea market are selling their goods under $10, on a sliding scale, or implementing a “pay what you can” method.
“I’m just really excited that in this time where a lot of people are feeling that financial strain, that we can also set up an art market that could be very accessible to people who may be financially struggling, or, you know, youth who want to come and buy some Christmas presents or buy stuff for themselves,” said Keister.
The after party will take place in the basement at Hops/Scotch in Doylestown. Keister and Ophelia Gin will put on unique burlesque performances. Local band Cattail Bloom will perform at 6 p.m. and later The Bacarrudas take the stage at 7 p.m.
Keister said the punk rock flea market is hoping to return for future events while expanding to bigger spaces, adding live tattooing to the vendor list, and bringing in food vendors.
“It’s not set in stone or anything like that, but we are hoping to do several next year with the hopes of having them be outside ones where we could have more space as well,” she said.
