Serving up grilled food, cold drinks, and live music, barkeep Chris Austin welcomes visitors from around the world to the Biergarten, open the third weekend every month during Fredericksburg Trade Days. Photos by Phil Houseal

Details:
Fredericksburg Trade Days is located 7 miles east of Fredericksburg on Hwy 290 (across from Wildseed Farms). It is open the third weekend of every month (that's this weekend!), from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Live bands perform in the Biergarten each of those days from 12 noon to 4 p.m. There is no admission fee, only a $3 parking fee that is good all weekend. Information: 830-990-4900, 210-846-4094, fbg@moment.net, www.fredericksburgtradedays.com

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Trade Days:
A place in the shade

by Phil Houseal
June 14, 2006

Furniture, fine art, and "Fraulein."

That's a Texan's kind of outdoor market - one where you can shop to live country music. And that is just what you'll find at Fredericksburg Trade Days, held the third weekend of every month.

Rhonda Painter began the sprawling venture in 2002, deciding from the start she wanted more than just another flea market. (In fact she doesn't use what she calls "the f-word" to describe Trade Days, preferring to refer to it as an antique and craft market.)

So Painter added some things organizers always seem to overlook at a large outdoor gathering in the Texas summer; namely shade, a place to sit, live entertainment and lots of cold, cold things to drink.

They call it the Biergarten. Chris Austin, with the help of his mother and daughters, operates the covered, open-sided, tin and barn-board booth at Trade Days. Inside are comfortable seats, a bar, homebuilt grill, water misters, and a TV tuned to NASCAR and football.

"We accommodate the 'tag-alongers,'" Austin said, referring to those sometimes less-than-enthusiastic shoppers.

While we sat and sipped on a recent Saturday afternoon, Chad Reilly and his band were working up a sweat. His straight-ahead country sound suits a bar perched in the middle of a former turkey farm.

"We like to book familiar music that people can listen and dance to," Austin said. "That includes country-western, Texas rock and variety. That fits the nature of our clientele and the vendors."

In addition to music, Austin proffers 70 brands of beer - including around 50 imported brands, plus what Austin refers to as "rodeo" beers - or domestic lights.

The most popular menu item is the open-faced pork loin sandwich with German potato salad, which Austin prepares in Dutch ovens on site. Foot-sore and hungry shoppers also are welcome to bring in tasty dishes from the vendors ringing the area and just enjoy the music.

Austin has noticed it is the out-of-state and out-of-country people who fall most heavily under the charm of the Biergarten, which often stays open as late as 1:00 in the morning.

"They are the ones who come back after hours," he said, noting that's when he often hosts an open mic. "This is a unique place in the hill country. Foreign visitors are especially fond of the music we play. I get them to try some local beers and they are happy to stick around. They come to Texas to experience a piece of Texas."

Still, the priority at Trade Days is shopping and more shopping. With 250 inside booths and 175 outside spaces, visitors will find every type of tool, whatnot, knickknack, thingamajig and doohickey their hearts desire.

Drawing 8,000 to 10,000 visitors on a typical weekend, Trade Days continues to grow. Five former turkey barns now house vendors, and Austin - who is an architect the rest of the month - is working on getting the sixth barn ready.

"We have people parking all the way out to the cow patties," he said.

But when the music starts, the shade beckons, and the tap flows, everyone heads back to the Biergarten.

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