Newtown Markets

There’s a fine line between chic vintage charm and dusty garage detritus. The wares of the Newtown markets often fall on the side of the latter.
The standard of Sydney weekend markets is high — Marrickville, Paddington, Eveleigh, Bondi, even Glebe, are all good. Don’t get me started on the biannual Finders keepers. Newtown markets really just don’t cut it.
Occasionally there is a little glimmer of hope from a small stand, but otherwise the market is more of a hindrance to a busy thoroughfare than a worthwhile decrease in pace of your weekend stroll.

It’s a shame that this market lasts for only one day. The Newtown Markets is an exciting annual event at Camperdown Memorial Rest that brings the whole neighborhood together for live music, excellent food, and eclectic shopping. I was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of people crowding this space. The park was full, mostly with sketchy hippies. There were stalls in every direction, selling a very wide variety of things. A lot of them were selling clothes and different accessories, like watches and sunglasses. You could get a self-​caricature, or a henna tattoo that wraps around your arm. Obviously, people are going to get hungry. And you can satisfy your appetite very easily here. There’s a whole section of food tents of all kinds! You can find ethnic foods like Turkish gozleme and kebabs, organic vegan food served in a cabbage leaf bowl, or stir-​fry noodles. All the food is affordable and very delicious.
There are also live bands playing music all afternoon, too. Everyone is just chilling on the grass, some with joints, others with cheap beer. Of all the markets I’ve been to, the Newtown Markets are the dirtiest and quite mediocre. I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable, but it still was a fun thing to do on a Sunday. But definitely, the most remarkable aspect was the food.

Newtown Markets are probably the most underwhelming of Sydney’s inner west markets. And in fact, I don’t think they’re an official market at all. Occasionally, they just pop up.
The handful of stalls here offer a comparatively small selection of second-​hand cds, dvds and books at pretty reasonable prices (Smash Hits 15 double CD for $ 5 — of course I bought it), as well as a range of mens and womens leather boots, belts, jackets and not-​so-​nice jewellery. Basically, Newtown markets seem to be made up of a couple of people trying to get rid of things that would otherwise be cluttering up their house — so whilst occasionally there’s a few nice dresses being thrown away, you won’t find any boutique fashion stalls here.
Mostly pretty cheap, this weekly communal garage sale is worth a quick and casual browse post breakfast or coffee at either Barmuda (review:
) or Black Star (review:
).