The last weekend for long running Redwood Drive-in Swap Meet
Dec 20, 2024, 10:00 PM | Updated: Dec 22, 2024, 1:11 pm
WEST VALLEY CITY — People are preparing to say goodbye to a long-running swap meet in West Valley City.
Saturday and Sunday are the last ones before the property at the Redwood Drive-In is redeveloped for new housing.
“We’re very sad we fought for it. We tried to save it,” said Cristian Gutierrez Carbajal, President of the Redwood Chamber of Commerce.
Gutierrez Carbajal helped lead the charge but failed to convince the West Valley City Council not to rezone the land in September. He’s sad to see the swap meet end.
“It’s heartbreaking, it’s very heartbreaking that the swap meet is going to be gone,” Carbajal said.
Cristian Gutierrez Carbajal spoke out about the closure of the Redwood Swap Meet earlier this year. (KSL TV)
He’s one of hundreds of vendors who turned selling items at the swap meet into a successful business. For him, it led to his own brick-and-mortar store.
“All of that was thanks to the Redwood Drive-In Swap Meet, just to be able to start a business anywhere else takes so much capital, so much money,” he said.
For others, the swap meet is almost all they know. Jesus Rodriuez has worked there since he was 15 and now helps manage it.
“My high school was there, part of my life, everything was there, that was a long time,” Rodriuez said.
He had to inform vendors that this weekend was the last one.
“It was so hard to go tell people we’re done,” Rodriuez said.
The parking lot of the Redwood Drive-In before its last weekend. (KSL TV)
As hard as it is to say goodbye, they’re hoping it’s really just a “See you later.”
“This is the end for the Redwood Drive-In Swap meets, but it’s not the end for the community that was built inside,” Gutierrez Carbajal said.
Vendors are trying to find a new home for the event. They said they’re in talks with at least two locations in the Salt Lake Valley and are hoping to get a deal done so they can reopen as early as February or March.
