Free Live Tunes: Farmers Market Summer Tradition

A Friday night wind-down is a Third & Fairfax favorite.

"We could stay all day!"

It's a sentiment oft-shared, in a hundred different ways, by fans of the Original Farmers Market, the green-awning'd, clock-tower'd landmark at Third & Fairfax. And it is true; you can buy a tea, find a table, and read/play cards/gossip with a pal for ten hours straight, without feeling the urge to vamoose.

That happy stay-longer feeling only grows come the warmer days of late May, when the free Friday night music happenings set up the drum kits and guitars. 

Like so many things at the historic spot, "free" is indeed the key word; you need pay nothing to stake out a table or dance to the Brazilian and country and rock beats. What you should do, if you can, is arrive a bit ahead of the 7 p.m. start time, the better to find your ideal seat on the West Patio. 

It fills up, as long-running, beloved traditions tend to do. And larger parties, straight from the office and looking to do a little winding down, are apt to land at the tables, tables that will soon contain a pitcher of beer or plates of nachos.

As for the 2015 calendar? The dates run from Friday, May 29 through Friday, Aug. 28 and the acts are from all corners of the dial: Gina Matteo brings the blues, The Lucky Stars rev up the Western Swing, and Beatles tribute band The Fab Fours open it all up.

Yep, we said "the dial" there, in reference to the radio. Summertimes of yore, spent turning the knob looking for just the right song, are a classic memory for many people. And finding that vintage vibe again is easy at the started-in-1934 market.

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But you don't need to arrive with your retro radio to capture that days-gone-by spirit. Just enjoy some free tunes on a Friday in one of the SoCal settings that has weathered the decades well.

And to pay nothing? To linger for hours? Yep, you could stay all day, or, in the case of the music nights, all evening long. 

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