BY SCOTT STIFFLER| Strolling shoppers, schmoozing stakeholders, and priced-to-go purveyors of slightly used stuff, rejoice: That much-missed harbinger of autumn–The London Terrace Street Fair–has slipped the surly bonds of its 2024 cancellation by booking 2025 and 2026 return dates (Sept. 20 and Oct. 3, respectively).

It was August 9 of last year when Chelsea Community News reported the event’s demise with a headline reading, London Terrace Tenants Association Ends its Annual Street Fair (click here to access the article). Just days before, a “Farewell” email penned by LTTA President Inge Ivchenko noted the lack of  “many volunteers” necessary to create a successful Street Fair made the prospect of continuing “just not feasible.”

But what a difference a year makes. Ivchenko, who had been helming the event for a decade prior to its 2024 cancellation, currently finds herself less busy with day job obligations that left no time for Street Fair logistics other than, “every morning and every night for the month of September and nearly a month before that…because you have to talk to people, collect info and payment, get the permits. But this is really a community event that people look forward to, that had been going on for over 30 years. And the vendors, I’ve heard from them all year long. They want to return.”

That said, Ivchenko notes the 2025 Street Fair will be a familiar return to form. As in years past, West 24th Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues will be closed to vehicular traffic from 10am to 5pm on the third Saturday of September. Vendors will line both sides of the street, having rented their 10 x 10 space “for $120, same as it always has been.  If you pay by August 20, it’s $100. We always give a discount for early birds.” Book your space after September 10, and it’s a cash-only arrangement. “Because every year since I’ve run it,” recalls Ivchenko, “there’s always at least one person who cancels their check” at the last minute.

No chances are being taken with the scheduling either, says Ivchenko, who ran this year’s September 20 date past organizers of other nearby annual events, to avoid double bookings. And mindful of next year’s Jewish calendar, the London Terrace Street Fair has been booked–with optimal optimism–for Saturday, October 3, 2026.

Although no longer presented under the auspices of the Tenants Association, Ivchenko says “The Board is happy with it. And I said I would give most of the profits to the Tenants Association, which we we usually give to Holy Apostles [Soup Kitchen], but they wanted us to continue doing that–the Holy Apostles donation–so I’m very happy about that.”

Keep updated–and access vendor application forms–by clicking here to visit the London Terrace Street Fair Facebook page.

Street Fair photos from the Chelsea Community News Archives

FROM 2023 (click here to access the article; all photos by @directorchick)

FROM 2021 (click here to access the article; photos courtesy of LTTA unless otherwise noted)

FROM 2019 (click here to access the article; photos courtesy of LTTA unless otherwise noted)

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