Photo courtesy of REV Birmingham.
Customers visit Mattie’s Garden, a vendor at the Woodlawn Street Market, in 2021. The market returns on April 9 for its ninth season in the historic neighborhood.
Since 2014, more than 500 Birmingham entrepreneurs have used the popular Woodlawn Street Market as a way to start small, share their products with the public and refine their business models using real customer feedback.
A partnership between REV Birmingham, the Woodlawn Business Association and Woodlawn United, the market typically features more than 70 local makers selling all sorts of items — including art, jewelry, clothing, toys, food and décor — on 55th Place between First Avenue North and First Avenue South.
Along the way, the market “has become a community staple,” said market co-founder and organizer Rebekah Fox in a REV Birmingham news release.
This month, the market returns for its ninth season.
The 2022 Woodlawn Street Market schedule is as follows:
► Sat., April 9, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
► Sat., June 11, 5-9 p.m.
► Sat., Aug. 13, 5-9 p.m.
► Sat., Oct. 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
► Sun., Dec. 11, noon-4 p.m.
In addition to offering attendees a unique, curated shopping experience, the market adds to the vibrancy of Woodlawn’s commercial district.
“There’s an influx of people visiting, walking around, engaging and spending money at local businesses, becoming familiar and possibly more comfortable with the neighborhood and larger community of Woodlawn,” Fox told Iron City Ink in 2019.
The crowd is also very diverse.
“One of my favorite things about the market is the crowds, big or small, full of all kinds of people, walking around the street together,” Fox said.
In 2022, organizers will continue to do whatever they can to support the start-ups that offer their wares at the market,
“REV's business growth team and its partners support start-ups as they launch at this market and grow beyond, especially with a goal of moving into brick and mortar,” said Robert Emerick, REV Birmingham client relations manager.
In 2022, the REV/Woodlawn Street Market team also plans to use new wayfinding to help visitors explore the larger Woodlawn business district, which has been growing beyond the market footprint the last few years.
Vendors can submit applications at woodlawnstreetmarket.com.
The website also features a Virtual Woodlawn Street Marketplace where shoppers can buy from vendors between markets.
For more information about REV Birmingham — a nonprofit focused on economic development and neighborhood revitalization — go to revbirmingham.org.
