R5 Productions‘ Holiday Punk Rock Flea Market has finally been rescheduled following its unfortunate postponement shortly before it was supposed to occur on December 20th. It’s no longer a holiday flea market (of course the ‘punk rock’ remains in tact) and it’s no longer being held at Starlight Ballroom, as originally planned. In a somewhat shocking turn, the Punk Rock Flea Market will now be hosted at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory (a Live Nation venue, R5′s biggest competitor, not to mention “the man”) on February 1st from 10AM till 4:30PM.
You may have noticed that the date for the PRFM is the same day as the Super Bowl, which may be problematic for the football watching inclined punk rock flea marketer, no worries though. The market ends at 4:30PM, plenty of time to get to the bar or to set up for your own Super Bowl party. And, my new reason for loving the guys of R5, should our beloved Eagles miraculously (GO EAGLES!) make it into the Super Bowl, a “rain date” for the flea market is scheduled for the following weekend. Even the punks in this town bleed green.
Who knows how it happened (corporate entities are almost never this awesome), but the Electric Factory decided to be cool as hell and let R5 have the space for free (they just have to pay the employees)! R5 founder Sean explains it all in this blog post, here’s an excerpt:
We are the first to admit it is a bit peculiar to host something called The Punk Rock Flea Market, which benefits R5 Productions, at the Electric Factory (even if Fugazai did play their last two Philly shows here). After many discussions with friends, staff members and fellow sellers – we all came to the conclusion that this was the best idea and location and to go through with the plan…In a gesture of professional friendship, Electric Factory extended out an olive branch and decided that they would not charge us a rental fee for the room. We would only have to pay the individual staff members.
GREAT SUCCESS! AWESOME! So punks (and myself) – you can all go to bed resting easy knowing that your hard earned $3 is not going to support “The Man” =) We now have a bigger and better location for this winter’s flea market.
So there you have it. With a bigger space, more tables are available to vendors! Those signed up for tables at the originally scheduled flea market will have their reservations honored and refunds will be given should a vendor wish to cancel due to the new date. New tables are up for reservation beginning Wednesday, January 14th.
See you at the PRFM on February 8th 
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