The Punk Rock Flea Market Akron is scheduled for noon-6 p.m. on Saturday at Lock 3. The market features alternative artists, vendors, crafters and small independent businesses, along with live music and food trucks. (Courtesy of We Are The Weirdos Ohio)

AKRON, Ohio – The Punk Rock Flea Market Akron will debut this Saturday, Aug. 13, from noon-6 p.m. at Lock 3 in downtown Akron.

Admission is free for the market, which features more than 60 alternative artists, vendors, crafters and small independent businesses from Akron and surrounding communities.

The market is organized by We Are The Weirdos Ohio, a company Rachel Raymond and Math Byler founded after finding their alternative graphic apparel company, Xraeart Clothing Co., wasn’t quite the right fit for traditional maker markets.

“The shows that we were at for Xraeart Clothing were really well curated, but our demographic wasn’t showing up,” Byler said.

“We realized after doing some of the shows in the area and vendor events that we were kind of the odd ducklings out of the people who would come to these events. We realized that we wanted to create more opportunities for alternative artists and small businesses in our region to come together and basically be able to sell what they want to sell,” Raymond said.

Math Byler, left, and Rachel Raymond founded We Are The Weirdos Ohio last year after finding their alternative graphic apparel company, Xraeart Clothing Co., wasn’t quite the right fit for traditional maker markets. The duo organized the Punk Rock Flea Market Akron to create more opportunities for alternative artists and small businesses to sell their goods.

The duo got to work creating Akron’s first Punk Rock Flea Market. Though the punk rock flea market is new to Akron, the concept isn’t — the first such market debuted in Trenton, N.J., and additional markets soon followed in larger cities such as Philadelphia, Seattle and Reno, Nev., Byler said.

“When I first came here from Philadelphia — and I’ve been going to the Philadelphia and Trenton punk rock flea markets forever — and we started the clothing company, we went to the Philadelphia one and sold out there. We made more money there than like three or four Ohio shows,” Byler said.

The duo credits Downtown Akron Partnership as instrumental in helping them establish the event, which is sponsored by the city of Akron, Byler said.

Goods for sale include vintage clothing, original art prints, oddities, baked goods, original graphic apparel, macabre creations, handmade jewelry and collectibles. The market will feature live music, food trucks, a beer truck, contests and raffles.

It was important for Raymond and Byler to keep the vendor fees low for the show and to offer free admission for attendees.

“We try to be very vendor friendly because we’re vendors ourselves,” Byler said. “And we want people to come down, have fun, experience the show and go around and shop without having to worry about a little bit of their money being taken away for the show admission.”

Bands scheduled to perform at the event are:

In addition to hosting the market, Raymond and Byler will offer their clothing company’s alternative graphic apparel and quality handmade crafts such as leather cuffs and chokers and hand-sewn backpacks and bags. The duo’s goods are inspired by their love of punk, grunge, Goth, emo, metal music and fashion.

After the flea market, We Are The Weirdos Ohio is looking to create more opportunities for alternative artists, vendors, crafters and small independent businesses, according to Byler.

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