Feria de San Telmo: a street fair where you can travel back in time

The San Telmo street fair, located on the neigborhood with the same name, is a place where antiques, tango and history come together.

It first started in November 1970 with only 30 canopy styled tents, back in the day, these kind of fairs were "new" to the city, so it took a while to really organize the event as we know it today. Years later the history is quite different and the fair has now over 270 tents!

In a way you can say this little fair is what started it all. San Telmo wasn't known for their antiques shops like it is today, in the early 70's there was only one antique shop, and the success of the street fair helped to the opening of new shops, like the ones we love today.

The street fair at Plaza Dorrego. Around it you'll find also bars and cafes to have lunch.

The "entrance" to the fair is on Defensa and Humberto I St. and from then on, several streets around it have many differents tents and you also have old houses now converted in stores as well, like the "conventillos" these old houses used to host several families, like a small apartment complex back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Now they host stores but keeping the same essence and style of the old houses. A great example in showing how immigrants families used to live back in the day.

One of the old "conventillos" turned into shops.

Tango dancers offering a free show on the streets

San Telmo is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, with houses dating all the way to the 1700's, so the fair is not the only attraction, their tiny little streets covered in coblestones and, old cafes offer certaing "bohemian flavour" only found in European streets.

So, if you want to take a stroll down memory lane, don't miss your chance to visit it on sundays!

Address: Defenda and Humberto I St.

Web Site: https://www.feriadesantelmo.com/

Business Hours: Sundays 10AM - 5PM