Weekend Miser | New York Times

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Dekalb Market Kicks Off Season With Live Music

The urban dictionary gives several definitions for “weekender,” including a youth who works a boring weekday job just to pay for raves and drugs on the weekend; a busy significant other who is never around during the workweek; and, the Miser’s favorite, a person who enjoys life more than most.

The Dekalb Market embraces that last description with a Weekender of its own, a party to celebrate the opening of its second year. In addition to the market’s 60 signature shipping-container boutiques, there will be 40 outdoor vendors with vintage clothing; jewelry; art; food, like Robicelli’s chicken and waffle cupcakes; $1 mimosas until 2 p.m.; and free farming workshops sponsored by Family Cooks Productions and Rooftop Farms.

It may sound like a typical haunt for young Brooklynites who want to shop off their hangovers, but according to Allison Robicelli, who operates Robicelli’s cupcake stand at the market, it is more diverse. “There has been sort of a slant in the media, like there was no culture here before hipsters showed up,” said Ms. Robicelli, who grew up in Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst.

“When the Market first reached out to us two years ago, I was very worried it would be another blasé, trendy market,” she said, but when she was invited to talks between organizers and community leaders, almost a year before the Market was built, she was pleasantly surprised.

The Weekender’s music lineup makes the diversity apparent. On Saturday Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra swing and jive, and on Sunday Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens sing soul music influenced by Ms. Shelton’s church choir as well as by the clubs she frequents in New York. For kids, there will be an Easter egg hunt at noon and a petting zoo from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., both days.

“It’s like a town square,” Ms. Robicelli said. And this year the square gets bigger, with live entertainment and plenty of free events. The market will be open seven days a week, with monthly programming like Down and Derby roller skating parties, bike-in movie screenings and twilight markets, with art-focused vendors, local bands and carnival performers from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., beginning in May. Sunday afternoon dance parties and live concerts, both ticketed and free, will be held every week.

(Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Regular hours: retail open Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; food open Sundays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; 138 Willoughby Street, at Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn; 212-529-9262, dekalbmarket.com.)

 - Rachel Lee Harris

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