HILLSVILLE, Va. – The annual Hillsville Flea Market starts on Friday, and the town is gearing up for thousands of visitors.
The market is expected to draw more than 500,000 visitors, and vendors from all over the country gather in Southwest Virginia for this Labor Day tradition.
Antique dealers, gun dealers and traders of all kinds started selling at 7 a.m. At the flea market, you can find furniture, vinyl records, books, baseball cards, coins, and much more. Landowners have been preparing for this event for weeks. Jeremy Hundley, the market manager for Hundley Flea Market said his family started getting ready for the weekend about seven weeks ago.
The process of getting ready starts with mowing the grass and spreading gravel and hay throughout the market area. Some of the vendors for this year’s flea market started showing up ten days ago.
Hundley said the market started about 55 years ago. The first group to host it was the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), located directly across the street from the Hundley family. The Hundleys got involved because the market grew so big and the VFW ran out of space for vendors.
“We have a large farm directly across the road. Some people came over and wanted to get some spaces with us. The first year we had one or two and there has been at times we have had as many as 600,” said Hundley.
The Hillsville Flea Market runs from Sept. 3-6t. Vendors can start selling at 7 a.m. and most close at 6 p.m.