FDR Park’s Southeast Asian Market is opening for the season this weekend

After weeks of delays, the Southeast Asian Market at FDR Park is set to finally open for the season.

The popular food market will welcome visitors beginning this Saturday. It will operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of October. However, SEA Market will be closed this Sunday for the Broad Street Run.

Further information on the market, including FAQs and schedule updates, can be found at SEA Market’s website, Instagram or Facebook page.

The SEA Market was originally scheduled to open for the season at the end of March, but recent changes in leadership at both Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Southeast Asian Market, as well as some new logistical needs, led to delays, according to a Parks spokesperson.

“More time was needed to resolve a few operational and logistical issues and ensure a successful 2024 market season,” the spokesperson said.

The market is a popular annual fixture for the city’s Southeast Asian and food loving communities. It was started in the 1980s by Lao and Cambodian refugees and immigrants living in South Philly who gathered informally in FDR Park.

“The market is a culmination of this community of refugees who were just trying to make it in Philadelphia and [be] accepted,” said Catzie Vilayphonh, community cultivator for Southeast Asian Market. She explained how difficult it was and still can be for Southeast Asian immigrants to start their own restaurants in Philadelphia, but the pop-up and communal nature of the market allows them to share their food with others more easily.

“It’s important because it means people [can] see us and that people finally recognize that culturally, the way we do things is important to us.”

Now, SEA Market is nationally recognized for its over 70 vendors who sell food items like papaya salad, mango sticky rice, and Vietnamese coffee each year.

» READ MORE: South Philly’s Southeast Asian Market named one of the best in the country by Food & Wine

“It transcends the boundaries of a traditional food market; it is a sanctuary of shared experiences and a testament to the resilience of the many immigrants and survivors of war that kept and continue to keep the market alive today,” Food and Wine wrote about the market when it named one of the best in the country last year.

SEA Market typically operates in two different locations within the park based on the season. From opening until June, the market will be held near the Broad Street exit, and from June through October, it will move to near the Taney Baseball field.

The market will eventually have a permanent home in the southwest corner of the park, which will be constructed using a $100,000 grant awarded to the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Department of Commerce in 2022.

If you are not sure where to start your visit to the market, Vilayphonh recommends taking a food tasting tour led by the Fairmount Park Conservancy, which will occur throughout the season. The first is on May 18, and tickets are available at myphillpark.org.