Salem Night Faire

 For a few weekends in October you can step into the Salem Night Faire, a craft fair that shares its border of reality with strange beings from another realm. This is the seventh year for the Faire and I finally decided to pay a visit.

The Faire has over 50 vendors offering all sorts of things including jewelry, clothing, art, and other hand made items. There's also plenty of food and drink to be had. The event is located at Salem's Pioneer Village. Hocus Pocus fans would no doubt recognize Binx's home as the early Salem scenes were filmed here.

You can even find the Sanderson's spell book inside the building.

Venture further in after the break!

The Night Faire is not a place to be if you can't do crowds. Just like downtown Salem in October, there are a lot of people here. If you want to look at a vendor's wares under their tent, you pretty much have to get in line or wait for someone to step out so you can squeak in.

This tent had quite a variety of items for sale. They even had a Black Cat Fortune Telling Game which I definitely would have picked up if not for the $200 price tag.

This person had all hand made items including these decorative knife-shaped pieces.

What really sets this apart from your standard vendor fair with food trucks are the...personalities that lurk about.

This hooded figure was strumming out some dire notes.

Nearby, a group of girls was consulting with one of the fortune tellers.

After tipping this performer, they reached into their sleeve and pulled out a few strands of straw and gave them to me.

It was fun watching people approach this duo. Some were brave, some showed hesitation, fearing what they might experience. The sign says "Reach inside and feel what thee fear most." I took my own chance and put a hand in the box. As you do so the women in unison lift a finger to their lips, imploring you not to reveal the secret inside the box.

I didn't interact with this one so I'm not sure what they were all about.

By far, the most popular is this creepy fortune teller. After tipping them, you approach, extend your hands, and receive a piece of paper with your fortune.

The performer is a real treat to watch. They never speak and convey a lot of menace and mirth in their expressions and actions. Sometimes, it's a straight forward handing over of the fortune. Sometimes, they will pull one out, look at it, look to the person, then return it and pull out another one.

The character's height combined with the lighting really makes them creepy.

 

This character pulls two Tarot cards out of a box and blindly offers them to you to choose one. I got the Three of Cups, which generally indicates an upcoming happy event. I'm writing this post on Sunday (10/20). We're gong to a casino Friday, hopefully this is a good sign!

There's also these great displays all around. I could probably ramble on a bit more about the sights. There were still more performers I didn't get photos of. There was someone doing the old "which cup is the ball under" hustle and there's an area where you can sit by a fire and listen to ghost stories.

 

Despite the crowd, it was a really fun time. Being outdoors at night and seeing the performers, you kind of get a "dangerous fun" feeling. Like you stepped into a place that you're not sure you should be and are seeing things that may be part of a dream.

You can flip through all my pics below or if you want to see bigger, better versions head over to my Flickr page.