Ferias (Street Fairs)

For sightseers and spontaneous shoppers alike, Buenos Aires [1]’s diverse ferias (street fairs) are one of the city’s greatest pleasures. The most prominent is Sunday’s Feria de San Pedro Telmo, which fills Plaza Dorrego [2] and surrounding streets—authorities close Calle Defensa to vehicle traffic—with booths full of antiques, filete paintings, and other crafts. There are professional tango musicians and dancers, and dozens of other street performers range from embarrassingly mundane to truly innovative. Running roughly 10 a.m.–5 p.m., it also involves sidewalk cafés and nearby upscale antiques shops.

So successful is the Feria de San Pedro Telmo that it has added the now-thriving Feria Parque Lezama, a Sunday crafts fair that has gradually spread north from its namesake park up Defensa and under the freeway; only the broad Avenida San Juan has managed to stop it. Parque Lezama [3] also gets Sunday street performers, though not as many as Plaza Dorrego [2].

In La Boca [4], the Feria Artesanal Plazoleta Vuelta de Rocha (Avenida Pedro de Mendoza and Puerto de Palos) takes place weekends and holidays 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; along the length of the nearby Caminito, painters, illustrators, and sculptors sell their works in the Feria del Caminito, open 10 a.m.–6 p.m. daily.

After San Telmo, the most frequented feria is Recoleta [5] ’s crafts-oriented Feria Plaza Intendente Alvear. Immediately northeast of the Centro Cultural Recoleta, also strong on street performers, it has begun to stretch south along Junín; hours are 9 a.m.–7 p.m. weekends and holidays.

On weekends and holidays, crafts stalls cover most of Belgrano [6]’s main square at the easygoing Feria Artesanal Plaza General Manuel Belgrano (Juramento and Cuba). Hours are 9 a.m.–7 p.m. or even later, when it gets better.

Gauchesco traditions thrive in the weekend Feria de Mataderos, where city-bound paisanos (countrymen) and would-be paisanos immerse themselves in the nostalgia of the campo, (countryside). In addition to a diverse crafts selection, this spirited street fair features open-air parrilladas (mixed grills) and regional delicacies like tamales along with live music and dancing in rural styles such as chamamé, horseback races, and even—during Carnaval—a neighborhood murga (troupe) to kick off the season in the style of northwestern Jujuy Province.

In the southwesterly barrio of Mataderos, in the streets surrounding the arcades of the former Mercado de Hacienda (Lisandro de la Torre and Avenida de los Corrales), the feria (www.feriademataderos.com.ar [7]) is about an hour from the Microcentro [8] by colectivo No. 180 and ramal (branch) 155 from Tucumán, Talcahuano, or Lavalle. In summer it takes place 6 p.m.–midnight Saturday; the rest of the year, it starts at 11 a.m. Sunday.