Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet

The Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet runs six days a week on Alondra Boulevard, on ground that used to be a drive-in movie theatre. You can still read the shape of the old lot: Friday night, Saturday and Sunday the market sets up inside it, rows of stalls selling new merchandise where the cars once parked.

Tuesday through Thursday the whole thing shrinks to the front parking lot and turns into a garage sale, with cheaper spaces and secondhand goods. Monday is the only day it closes.

The music is the other half of the draw. Live entertainment runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday and comes with paid admission, usually a tribute band in the afternoon and a regional Mexican bill at night, the kind of booking that puts four banda groups on one stage. The market posts the coming weekend on its own calendar, so the schedule is easy to check before a drive.

Admission is sold at a box office at the entrance, kids under 54 inches get in free with a paying adult, and parking costs nothing any day the gates are open. Pets are not allowed. A Friday show starts at 7 PM and a Saturday one at 12 PM or 5:30 PM, so the stalls are still trading when the first band goes on.