The Delray Beach GreenMarket opened its 31st winter season last Saturday, October 24. It will be back on the Old School Square campus at 51 N. Swinton Avenue every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through May 22, 2027, with more than 70 local growers, makers and food vendors. This fall, some Saturdays bring an art show onto the same lawn. The museum next door, the cafes a few blocks away and the free downtown shuttle each start at a different hour. A good market morning comes down to timing.
The basics haven't changed since the Delray Beach CRA started the market in 1996. You'll find locally grown produce, grass-fed beef, fresh-caught seafood, just-picked citrus and tropical fruit, farm-fresh eggs, artisan cheese and jams, baked goods, cut flowers and plants, and live music through the morning. Space is set aside for nonprofit vendors and rotating small businesses. A food area with on-site cooking and seating turns a quick produce run into breakfast or an early lunch.
Five hours on the square, by the clock
The market opens at 9. Downtown starts earlier than that, and its pieces come online one at a time.
- 7 a.m. Deke's in Delray, an espresso bar at 6 NE 5th Ave., opens for its weekend hours, which run until 2 p.m. Colombian Coffee House at 12 SE 5th Ave. also opens at 7 and stays open until 8 p.m.
- 8 a.m. The Modern Rose at 142 SE 6th Ave. starts serving breakfast, brunch and coffee. It keeps 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
- 9 a.m. GreenMarket vendors open on the Old School Square campus.
- 10 a.m. The Cornell Art Museum opens. Admission is free, and it's open until 5 p.m.
- 11 a.m. Freebee, the free on-demand electric shuttle downtown, starts its Saturday service.
- 11:30 a.m. Weekend brunch begins at Brulé Gastro-Kitchen, 200 NE 2nd Ave., and runs until 3 p.m.
- 2 p.m. Market vendors close.
This order is useful. An early coffee on Fifth Avenue fits before the first stalls open. The museum opens an hour into the market, so a mid-morning break inside costs you nothing. Brunch on NE 2nd Avenue starts as the market winds down, so you can shop first and sit down after.
The Saturdays when the market shares the lawn
On most Saturdays this winter, the GreenMarket has the campus to itself. Between now and mid-December, several Saturdays bring something else to Old School Square or the streets around it. The Downtown Delray Beach events calendar is the best place to track them.
| Saturday | Also downtown | Hours | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 31 | Last day of extended Downtown Delray Restaurant Month offers | Varies by restaurant | Participating venues |
| Nov. 7 | Art on the Square, a juried fine-art show | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Old School Square campus |
| Nov. 21 | Southern Handcraft Society 33rd Annual Art & Craft Show | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Old School Square |
| Nov. 21 | 40th Annual Delray Beach Turkey Trot 5K | 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. | Anchor Park |
| Dec. 5 | 26th Annual Downtown Delray Beach Art Festival | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | NE 4th Ave. north of Atlantic Ave. |
| Dec. 12 | GreenMarket on its own | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Old School Square |
This Saturday, October 31, is the last day for the Restaurant Month offers. The Palm Beach Post reported that 15 downtown restaurants extended their specials through the end of October. Boca magazine's list includes Carmela Coffee, Kapow Noodle Bar, Dada and Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse among the participants. If you'd like to pair a market morning with one of those deals, this weekend is your last chance.
November 7 is the strongest art-and-produce pairing of the season. Art on the Square brings nearly 70 artists from across the country to the campus grounds. Paintings, sculpture, photography, jewelry, ceramics and mixed media will be set up under the palms, and admission to both the show and the Cornell Art Museum is free. Judging runs from 10 a.m. to noon, so the late morning will be the busiest stretch. The show continues Sunday, November 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you'd like a quieter look at the art without the market, Sunday is the better day.
November 21 splits the morning between the beach and downtown. The Turkey Trot is based at Anchor Park, 340 S Ocean Blvd. Race-day activity runs from 6:30 to 9 a.m., and the 5K starts at 7:30. Back on Swinton Avenue, the Southern Handcraft Society's art and craft show wraps up a three-day run that began Thursday. It keeps the same 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. hours as the market that Saturday. So the two events open and close together on the same campus, and a runner who finishes by 9 can walk into both just as they open.
December 5 moves the extra activity a few blocks east. The Downtown Delray Beach Art Festival sets up on NE 4th Avenue north of Atlantic Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both December 5 and 6. The market stays at Old School Square, and a short walk joins the two. A week later, on December 12, the calendar shows the GreenMarket alone on the square.
The CRA posts any market closure for a citywide event on its GreenMarket page and on social media at @delraygreenmarket. If you're planning around a festival weekend, check there Friday night.
What's inside the Cornell between stalls
When the 10 a.m. crowd builds on the lawn, the Cornell Art Museum offers free, air-conditioned galleries a few steps away. Its fall lineup gives you a reason to step in more than once this season.
- River of Grass and Blooming in Color! are on view through January 24, 2027.
- A printmaking retrospective of Ron Garrett's work runs through February 28, 2027.
- KOLLERISM: "Vivid & Wild" opens December 4, 2026, and stays through March 21, 2027.
The KOLLERISM opening falls the day before the Downtown Delray Beach Art Festival begins. That makes the first weekend of December the fullest art weekend downtown before the holidays: a new show at the Cornell, a street festival on NE 4th Avenue and the market in between. The city's 100-foot Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration and Yuletide Street Fair arrive a few days earlier, on Tuesday, December 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. More than 60 vendors will set up along Atlantic Avenue, Old School Square and Pineapple Grove, with food trucks on Swinton Avenue.
Getting there: park before 11, ride after
The shuttle schedule shapes the trip more than you might expect. The City lists Freebee's Saturday hours as 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., two hours after market vendors open. Freebee covers I-95 to A1A and Gulfstream Boulevard to SW 10th Street. You can book a ride in the app, call 855-918-3733 or flag down a vehicle. For a 9 a.m. arrival, that means walking, biking or parking. For the trip home with a bag of citrus and a flat of eggs, Freebee is running by then. Shuttle hours can change, so check the City's page before you count on a ride.
If you drive, these are the closest options:
- Old School Square Garage, 95 NE 1st Ave., at $1.50 per hour, according to the Downtown Delray Beach parking page.
- Robert Federspiel Garage, 22 SE 1st Ave., and the 4th & 5th Delray Garage, 25 SE 4th Ave., both listed at the same $1.50 hourly garage rate.
The 4th & 5th Delray Garage is the handy choice on December 5, since it sits between the art festival and the Fifth Avenue coffee stops. The My Delray Beach app shows real-time parking availability, which helps on festival Saturdays. The City's Pay for Parking page says the first 20 minutes of downtown parking are free, which can cover a quick pickup from a single vendor. ParkMobile still charges its $0.35 transaction fee on that free session. If you don't use ParkMobile, you can start the 20 minutes by entering your license plate at the nearest downtown meter. Surface lot rates differ by location, so check the posted rate at your space.
If you shop with SNAP benefits, start at the EBT booth. Swipe your card there to get tokens, then spend them on eligible items throughout the market. Questions can go to Dominique Pelissier at [email protected].
Saturday mornings on Swinton Avenue are a big part of what we love about downtown Delray. If a Saturday at the market has you thinking about living within walking distance of Old School Square, the team at Castles By The Beach Realty would be glad to share what we know about the streets around it. Let's Connect.
