Amanda Lawson came to Switchyard Park on Sunday from rural Monroe County, hoping to sell more than she could at her rural home. By the end of “Junk in the Trunk,” a massive lawn sale organized by the City of Bloomington, she had sold most of the items she brought.
“Well, things are really expensive right now, so getting stuff secondhand is more important than ever and it’s more sustainable,” she said. “A lot of these items, if people don’t buy them, they are probably going to get thrown away. So, it’s good to give them a second or third life.”
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department hosted “Junk in the Trunk” for its first spring event this year, drawing a record-breaking number of booths, expanding the long-running sale into a biannual event.
It featured 99 vendor booths, drawing more than 1,000 attendees. Typically held in August, the department added a spring event after noticing an increased interest from vendors looking for additional opportunities to sell.
The department has hosted “Junk in the Trunk” for about 20 years.
Community Events Specialist Tara Brooke, who has helped coordinate the event for the past four years, said adding a spring event reflected years of vendor interest and community enthusiasm.
“This is the first spring version we’ve done,” Brooke said. “We’ve had vendors asking for a second date for years. Some of them are really passionate about junking, antiquing, thrifting, they know this world.”
Brooke also highlighted the event’s emphasis on sustainability. She said the sales benefit vendors and customers, allowing sellers to make a profit from items they no longer want while giving buyers the opportunity to reuse secondhand goods.
“I mean, anytime you are repurposing, reusing or rethinking something, giving it to a new home, anything that keeps something from going to the landfill, that's helping,” she said.
The event included booths in and outside the Switchyard Park Pavilion, giving attendees space to browse an array of items ranging from home goods and clothing to handmade crafts, vinyl records, jewelry and other secondhand treasures.
Visitors also had access to a variety of food trucks, including Uno Más Taco Truck and Planted, with outdoor seating available for attendees to sit back and relax between booths.
Zane Phelps, an administrative assistant with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said he enjoys the atmosphere created by Switchyard Park’s outdoor spaces and the chance to simply be around people.
“I like to be outside and in nature, I think Bloomington has so many outdoor spaces to offer,” Phelps said. “So, I think it's just about being outside, being with people and people watching too.”
For some members of the community, the event also served as an introduction to the range of programming offered by the city. Attendee and Bloomington resident, Haley Sheets, who moved to the city a few months ago, discovered the event through Facebook and said it provided an opportunity to explore and engage with her new surroundings.
“I come from a super small town, so there wasn’t anything like this,” Sheets said. “Getting everybody together in one place is just pretty great.”
For Phelps, the event was not only about sale, but also about connecting with the people and items that filled the space.
“When people bring out, you know, their possessions, they kind of let you see a little bit into their lives and things that they've held onto for various different reasons,” he said. “If you have an interest in that kind of thing, I think it's definitely an event for you.”
For many attendees and vendors, the event offered both an opportunity to support secondhand shopping and a chance to enjoy the spring weather while connecting with others. With “Junk in the Trunk” moving to a biannual schedule, the event is expected to continue as part of the city’s seasonal programming at Switchyard Park.
