Lunar Faire brings potions, witchy enjoyable and extra to Sussex County

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Lunar Faire, began in 2021 by three North Jerseyans, is sensational, inclusive pageant of witchcraft, weirdness and enjoyable.

• Lunar Faire’s Halloweekend is Nov. 1 at Sussex County Fairgrounds.
• Attractions embody drag and fireplace reveals, Lunar Queen blessings, tap-dancing mediums, astrological heckling and extra.
• Food contains vegan and gluten-free choices plus a Potions Lab with distinctive libations.

Do you need the moon water or the blood bag? Do you need your fortune left to a tiny tarot card affixed to a basil leaf or manifest it your self by writing your hopes on a chunk of edible paper, dissolving it right into a liquid-filled spell ball and ingesting it?  

If you’re feeling enchanted quite than confused by these questions, you must make plans to go to the Lunar Faire on November 1 on the Sussex County Fairgrounds. The whimsical libations at its Potions Bar are only the start of its many bizarre, witchy, magical choices throughout its ultimate pageant of 2025.

Its “Halloweenend” figures to be on of the biggest of the season, which runs from spring by means of full on choose nights all through New Jersey, in line with the lunar schedule. At every occasion, the Lunar Queen casts spells and leads rituals, there are fireplace and drag reveals, dozens of strange, artisan distributors, vegan and gluten-free meals vans and simply a lot extra.

The occasion, like most Lunar Faires, will convey 1000’s into Sussex County for a night of alchemy. It’s been rising out of plain sight, fairly actually in darkness, from a mere gathering of outsiders to a daily celebration of inclusivity.

“We’ve kind of just been unintentionally flying under the radar, but it’s OK because it’s kind of got this underground vibe anyway,” mentioned Tiffany Casey of Boonton, who began the honest in 2021 with associate Kelly Dagion, of Bloomingdale. “We worry a lot about parking, so we’re kind of OK with that.”

Indeed, Lunar Faire has grown so quickly and so giant its been chased out of municipalities with small roads and unsuitable parking. What’s the key to bringing so many individuals collectively so rapidly?

Casey laughed as if the reply had been apparent (and possibly it’s), and mentioned “Magic.”

What is the Lunar Faire?

Casey had been studying tarot playing cards for about twenty years when she was scrolling by means of Instagram and noticed some vibey evening markets. She thought there have to be a possibility to convey her craft to such an occasion.

“I saw people shopping in a market outside and I was like, ‘Oh, that would be cool, I wish there was one where I could read tarot cards around here.’ I was chatting with my friends and I was like, ‘Why don’t we try to make one?’”

That’s exactly what Dagion, Casey and her sister, Kryssy Hynes, did. With solely a few month of pre-planning, they held the inaugural Lunar Faire in 2021 on a tiny residential seashore in Oakland. Casey recollects doing the mathematics on what number of distributors and company they’d want for it to not seem like an embarrassing turnout: possibly a dozen distributors, a few hundred individuals.

So many extra got here. It was an instantaneous success.

“By the time we were walking on the beach at the end of the first one, the venue owner was looking at me like, what is this? And I’m like, ‘I know you think I hustled you but I legitimately didn’t legitimately think this would happen.’” she mentioned. “We had 40 vendors. It was busting out. The capacity was 550, so I’m sure it was well over that. It just had legs right from the beginning, and it was unexpected, and we’ve been grateful ever since.”

Dagion mentioned the timing of Lunar Faire’s launch (the pandemic) was advantageous, however that there’s simply one thing non secular too that has introduced individuals out to occasions from the get-go.

“I guess it’s part magic, but I think there are quite a few things. Our first year was 2021 and people were dying to get out and connect. Part of the magic of the fair is the spiritual aspect of it, and I feel like people were looking for reasons why messed up things happen in the universe. 

“We’re a very inclusive place. We pretty much welcome anyone who wants to come and see what’s doing,” Dagion added.

In the years since, Lunar Faire has added distributors (Casey mentioned the waitlist is a whole lot of makers lengthy), however the leisure — tight-rope walkers, fireplace jugglers, drag queens, bands… an “astrological heckler,” and extra — has stayed regular. It’s helped many non-traditional and underserved enterprise homeowners thrive.

“The vendors are 95% women, 95% disadvantaged business owners,” Casey mentioned. “It’s an underserved economy that are unique professional crafters and artists that are able to use this to do full-time artwork.”

Lunar Faire has additionally developed some homegrown sights like “Faire in a Box” units with vendor items, a pageant zine and the aforementioned Potions Lab. They’ve additionally arrange a mutual assist sales space at occasions this 12 months, providing psychological well being assets to company; it’s an initiative Casey hopes to show right into a nonprofit because it’s each helpful however core to the ethos of the pageant and its patrons.

“Having a community that is so supportive is definitely one of the vibes you can feel,” Casey mentioned. “Whether you know about it or not, that’s what helps make Lunar Faire the place that it is. It’s definitely way more than decor.”

What to count on at Lunar Faire

At the Nov. 1 Lunar Faire, Casey mentioned there’ll be extra actions and leisure than common: 20 extra distributors, prolonged hours, two extra bands, a tightrope walker who will set the rope on fireplace, an ancestor altar and Day of the Dead presentation, a Samhain celebration (of the approaching winter), wrestling, mechanical pumpkin driving and loads of picture ops. 

Writing out a listing of actions at anyone Lunar Faire, particularly this one, seems like asking a witch to play a recreation of phrase affiliation, which isn’t too far off from how Casey and her staff discover new expertise.

“I was like, I really want a medium to do some crazy s%&@,” Casey mentioned. “And one of the vendors who is a medium was like, ‘What do you think about me tap dancing?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, say no more. Absolutely, dude.’”

The potions are a foremost attraction, Casey mentioned: “it’s got alchemy but not alcohol.”

Hynes, a former bartender, develops the potions, which embody the Smashed Pumpkin, an iced drink “which tastes like pumpkin pie in drink form,” Hynes mentioned. There are potions with lights, edible flowers and smoke from liquid nitrogen in them, others like a lemonade that adjustments from blue to purple after an injection of citrus from a syringe, and naturally the “blood bag” of cherry-cranberry-limeade. Too there is a butter beer that is mentioned to rival Disney World’s.

The manifestation ball is new this 12 months, however speaks to the intention Hynes places into each element of the potions.

“You’re literally putting your wish into the drink and it’s dissolving and then drinking it, so you’re putting it out in the universe and then absorbing it,” she mentioned.

The moon water, too, is deeper than only a drink. It’s water that’s ignored beneath a brand new or full moon for 3 nights to “absorb whatever energy that moon has,” Hynes mentioned. It’s been a smash success.

The foremost factor you’ll be able to count on from Lunar Faire, although, is the vibe: inclusive, communal, bizarre and enjoyable. It’s an oasis, significantly these days, Dagion mentioned.

“I definitely feel that the community brings value to people, [as does] being an inclusive place and a place for people to get together and be with like-minded people and not have to worry so much.”

Lunar Faire Halloweekend is Saturday, Nov. 1 from 3-10 p.m. on the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta. Get tickets ($29.30) at lunarfaire.com. 

Matt Cortina is a reporter for NorthJersey.com/The Record. Reach him at mcortina@gannett.com.