Phillip Dane has enlisted some 400 'Etsy type' new and vintage vendors, food trucks and live music for the project, which he's describing as a food festival, flea market and block party all in one.

This weekend, the founder of the 16-year-old Melrose Trading Post, a Sunday flea market at Fairfax High School, is bringing his magic to Downtown Los Angeles. Sunday, Jan. 20, the South Park Flea Market will debut in a 70,000-square-foot parking lot

Dane said he was blown away by the frenzy surrounding the food trucks at the Dodger Stadium event. So much so, that some trucks were overwhelmed by the crowds and ran out of food. "That wasn't good. But that's when I started thinking that I need to do a food festival."

As of yesterday, event organizer Phillip Dane said he expects 38 or 40 trucks. Dane, who founded the Melrose Trading Post flea market in 1991 and the (now closed) Dodger stadium flea market, said that trucks were such a huge draw at the Dodger stadium market that he wanted to focus on them in his new project.

With its exposed wood beams, rustic furniture and stacks of old magazines, Philip Dane's is designed to feel like a cozy lodge, a lodge that just happens to sport a big walk-in humidor, an antique Coke machine, and a flashy new espresso machine.

Dane says that, despite its official-sounding name, the Art Walk Los Angeles nonprofit has no authority to demand fees from anyone: “Tomorrow I can start a 501(c)3, call it a nonprofit, name it the Downtown Art Walk 'Coalition' and claim that I'm the guy that handles Art Walk.”

After a career of producing outdoor markets and festivals, the husband-and-wife team of Phillip and Shelly Dane will be opening their first permanent boutique in downtown Los Angeles.

We Angelenos go gaga for burgeoning flea markets in this city like tourists for L.A. landmarks. Adding to the throng of artisanal havens, Phillip Dane (curator of Dodger Stadium Flea, Downtown Flea, and Melrose Flea) launches...