Sebastopol Plaza starts filling in before nine on a Sunday. Tents go up on Weeks Way, coffee roasters set out their urns, and by mid-morning the fountain area is doing what it's done every week for years: hosting the town's farmers market, rain or shine, all twelve months. A mile away on McKinley Street, something newer is happening, but only on certain Sundays. Canopies line up outside the Barlow, vendors unload jewelry cases and vintage racks, and a different crowd starts to gather.
Most weeks, those two scenes don't overlap. But on the third Sunday of the month, they do, and this coming one, August 16, is one of them.
That overlap isn't an accident. It's the result of a deliberate push by the people who run the Barlow's monthly Head West Marketplace to link their event to the plaza's weekly market, and it's worth understanding if you live here and want to know which Sunday actually rewards the walk between downtown and the Barlow.
A weekly market and a monthly one, on purpose
The Sebastopol Farmers Market has run every Sunday, year-round, in the plaza on Weeks Way for longer than most residents can remember, typically 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. It's produce, flowers, baked goods, and the kind of live music that turns a grocery run into an hour of sitting on the grass.
Head West Marketplace is a different animal. It's been showing up at the Barlow since 2019, but its return for the 2026 season required a fresh sign-off. In February, the Sebastopol Planning Commission approved the marketplace for the area around McKinley Street and Pink Lady Court, running the third Sunday of every month from March through December, with as many as 60 local makers, designers, and vintage sellers setting up under 10-by-10 canopies. Organizers told the Planning Commission they expect crowds as large as 2,500 people at each event.
The telling detail from that hearing is what a Barlow representative said about the farmers market: that they'd welcome a partnership because it's a walkable event that already draws steady Sunday foot traffic. In other words, the two markets aren't competing for the same Sunday. They're being positioned to feed each other, plaza in the morning, Barlow into the afternoon, with the third Sunday as the one day both are running at once.
The Barlow gave people more reasons to make that walk
Even without a marketplace happening, the Barlow has had a busy year, and it changes what that Sunday walk actually looks like. Rust Boutique, a clothing shop that had squeezed into about 500 square feet, moved into a much larger space on April 1 and now spans more than 1,300 square feet. Co-owner Tishia Merlo said the shop needed the room for its spring and summer 2026 collections, and the added footprint is meant to double as gathering space rather than just retail floor.
On the food side, chef-owner Martin Maigaard opened a second location of Wild Poppy Cafe this summer, the café known for its breakfast, brunch, and lunch service at its original creekside spot on Bodega Highway, inside the Barlow's former Woodfour Brewing room. The new outpost adds evening service and grab-and-go retail, and Maigaard built out an on-site tofu production setup that supplies both the cafe and other local restaurants, not just this one kitchen.
Genero's Delicatessen opened in the Barlow's food-court area in late January, and owner-chef Ian Marks has been drawing steady lunchtime lines for his Italian-style sandwiches ever since. Iggy's Organic Burgers is moving into the former Cock Robin space, pairing burgers with an ice cream counter for the family crowd. And there's a construction permit in for six new retail suites at 100 Morris St, smaller spaces that property managers say are better sized for local businesses than the larger footprints the Barlow originally built out.
None of this is flashy on its own. Together, it means the stretch between the plaza and the Barlow now has more reasons to stop along the way than it did a year ago, which matters on the one Sunday a month when people are actually making that trip on purpose.
Two Sundays, side by side
| Sebastopol Farmers Market | Head West Marketplace | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Sebastopol Plaza, Weeks Way | McKinley Street at the Barlow |
| Frequency | Every Sunday, year-round | Third Sunday, March through December |
| Hours | 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| What's there | Produce, flowers, baked goods, live music | Up to 60 makers, designers, vintage sellers |
August's rhythm starts with apples
If the third Sunday is the quiet, recurring version of Sebastopol's community calendar, the Gravenstein Apple Fair is the loud one. The 53rd annual fair took over Ragle Ranch Regional Park on August 8 and 9 this year, with this edition's theme, "Where Joy Takes Root," playing out across two stages of music, an apple pie baking contest, and Apple Alley, the row of booths near the entrance selling everything from fritters to apple-themed crafts.
The fair has also become one of the county's biggest showcases for local hard cider, and the growth there tells its own story. Last year, cider producers poured nearly 200 gallons at the fair, a record at the time. This year's craft cider tent features 16 producers, all working with apples, pears, quince, and other fruit grown within 100 miles of Ragle Ranch Park. Last year's pie contest winner, Jody McNaughton of Santa Rosa, took the top prize with a Gravenstein apple-cranberry pie, with her daughter Lauren McNaughton placing second with a caramel apple pie topped in oat crumble. This year's contest was judged by a panel that included Sebastopol Mayor Jill McLewis.
The fair only happens once a year, and it's already behind us for 2026. But it sets a tone the town carries for weeks afterward. It's the same appetite for small, local producers that shows up every single Sunday at the farmers market and once a month at Head West, just concentrated into one loud weekend instead of spread across the calendar.
Why this particular Sunday is worth marking
None of this requires planning a trip or clearing a weekend. If you already live here, the useful takeaway is simpler: this Sunday, August 16, is a third Sunday. The farmers market runs its normal 9 to 1:30 slot on the plaza, and Head West Marketplace runs 11 to 5 on McKinley Street at the Barlow, close enough in timing that a morning at one flows into an afternoon at the other. With Rust Boutique's bigger floor, Genero's sandwiches, and Wild Poppy's second location all sitting along that same stretch, it's a fuller version of the walk than it would have been a year ago.
Sebastopol doesn't need a reason to feel like a town worth being in on a Sunday. But this year, the third one has a case for being the best of the bunch.
If you're already part of this community and ever find yourself thinking about what's next, whether that's more space, less upkeep, or just a different stretch of West County, Sold with Summer is always glad to talk it through. Let's talk about your next move.
