Get Your Holiday Shopping On at the College of the Desert Street Fair (a.k.a. Swap Meet) in Palm Desert CA

 Get Your Holiday Shopping On at the College of the Desert Street Fair (a.k.a. Swap Meet)

 It’s time to get your holiday shopping on at the College of the Desert Street Fair in Palm Desert California.

It’s a veritable mobile mall surrounded by palm trees, the California desert, and mountains in the background, on the grounds of the College of the Desert. Get it?

The College of the Desert Street Fair, affectionately known by its other monicker – Swap Meet – is an amazing thing to see.

This is NOT your average flea market or garage sale. In fact, other than resembling such an event because of hundreds of vendors in tents and shoppers everywhere trying to find a bargain, it’s not a garage sale or flea market at all.

Don’t be mislead. You CAN find some great stuff at a great price, and vendors will often negotiate even beyond listed pricing. But it’s all new, for the most part (exceptions include estate jewelry). And you could easily drop a few thousand dollars if you want in jewelry alone.

There’s even a food court, with fresh produce as you would find in a farmer’s market.

And MALL MUSIC (but live, and much better).

Call it what you want. But the College of the Desert Swap Meet/Street Fair in Palm Desert is THE place in the California desert to get your shopping on, and perhaps even in all of Southern California. So grab your cash and credits cards, comfortable shoes, a bottle of water and check it out some time.

The Swap Meet is held year-round on weekends, but the busiest time (with more than 300 vendors) is October through May. It’s far less busy in the summer, but how many people want to stand around and shop when the temps exceed 100?

The College of the Desert Swap Meet is located at the corner of Monterey and Fred Waring Drive in Palm Desert. You can’t miss all the white tents. There is plenty of parking (forget paying for it, tons of it is free) and golf cart shuttles if the walk gets to be a bit much or you need assistance.

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