Pop Up Ave returns to downtown State College for the first time since 2019. What to know

For the first time since the pandemic, Pop Up Ave will return to downtown State College Saturday, and organizers hope to pick up where they left off with the community building event.

The free event will host more than 40 vendors selling everything from vintage clothing to candles, and will also feature live music and DJs. Pop Up Ave will also include a beer garden hosted by Elk Creek Cafe + Aleworks, along with food from Super Duper Café and Inside Out Cookie.

Brad Groznik, the co-founder and organizer of Pop Up Ave, described the event as “a vintage and handmade market.”

Groznik said he started Pop Up Ave with his wife Andrea in 2016, just after they returned to State College from New York City. The two enjoyed attending flea and vintage markets on the weekends in the city and “were surprised something like that didn’t already exist” in State College, he said.

“It’s kind of like a wedding,” Groznik said. “We get to see all of the community together.”

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grozniks hosted Pop Up Ave “two or three times a year,” from 2016 to 2019.

“We had planned to do it in 2020, (but) the pandemic stopped it,” Groznik said. “We’ve been waiting for the opportunity to bring it back.”

Groznik said he and his wife began planning this year’s event in the spring. The support they’ve received from a State College community eager to reignite Pop Up Ave has been encouraging, he said.

“This isn’t our full-time job,” Groznik said. “This is just something we do because we love to do it for the community.”

Groznik, who teaches entrepreneurship at Penn State, said the spring 2023 semester “felt like the first semester since the pandemic that we (were) totally back” to normal. That allowed him to start planning ahead for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Keely Reese, Groznik’s teacher’s assistant and an intern in his department before she graduated from Penn State in May, joined the Pop Up Ave crew as an assistant and is also a vendor. She said she’s been running “a small secondhand clothing business,” which can be found on Instagram @kreese66_upcycles, since early 2020.

She said Pop Up Ave will provide “a great place for students and people who may be in town to hang out without a football game” happening at Beaver Stadium.

“You can just sit and enjoy music (or) shop around,” Reese said. “There’s no obligation to buy anything.”

Groznik said Pop Up Ave is designed to model the flea markets from Penn State students’ hometowns.

“Everything has a little bit of an edgy younger feel,” Groznik said.

He said he and his wife ensure Pop Up Ave only includes vendors who sell goods that are reasonably priced, “so anybody with a little money in their pocket will be able to come and find something unique.”

“There are all these really great small business owners around the area that mostly sell online,” Groznik said. “But this is an opportunity for them to come, in person, and really show off.”

Groznik said Pop Up Ave, which occurs during Penn State’s Parents & Families Weekend, is perfect for students and their families.

“You can come, do some shopping, listen to some great music, get some food (and even) get a drink if you’re 21,” Groznik said. “Hang out and just enjoy.”

Pop Up Ave will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in the 100 block of South Fraser Street, between College and Beaver Avenues and the MLK Plaza. More information can be found on Instagram @popupave, Facebook @popupave and online at www.popupave.com.