Into anything witchy or weird?
Well, about 10 to 15 times a year, you can spend the night wandering Lunar Faire, a mystical night market that travels throughout the Garden State between spring and fall.
“This is a place where anyone can be who they are, and it’s cool,” says co-founder Kelly Dagion. “People in this world just want to be accepted as they are, and I want other people to be in a place where we can all feel that together.”
Lunar Faire has something for all ages. Photo: Mattie Cameron Rosen
At Lunar Faire events, large, outdoor fairgrounds fill up with more than 200 local vendors, featuring everything from art, crafts, clothes and wellness products to tarot readings and DIY spell jars. “Ninety to ninety-five percent of our vendors are women, non-binary, non-white male [or] disadvantaged businesses, and I’m grateful that we can support [them],” says co-founder Tiffany Casey.
Food trucks, tasty non-alcoholic “potions,” glimmering lights, drum circles, drag queens and fire dancers are also part of the fairs. Guests of all ages don whimsical apparel and accessories (think: flower crowns, angel wings, capes, gowns and fairy ears). It’s a fascinating spectacle—part Halloween, part Renaissance Faire, part fantasy wonderland.
Dagion and Casey, from Bloomingdale and Boonton respectively, held their first Lunar Faire event in 2021 in North Jersey. Three years later, the fair has grown significantly, receiving requests to host from counties all over New Jersey and adding hundreds of vendor applicants to a waitlist.
The fairs typically run from 5 to 10 pm under glowing new or full moons. The first Lunar Faire of 2024 on Saturday, April 28, was held in South Jersey in Mullica Hill and jointly celebrated the pink moon (which was full on April 23) as well as Beltane (a Gaelic May Day festival that indicates the start of summer). It brought in a weekend crowd of well over 3,000 people.
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Wander through 200+ vendors at Lunar Faire’s outdoor Night Market. Photo: Mattie Cameron Rosen
This Tuesday, May 7, the market will celebrate the new moon in Taurus at the Burlington County Fairgrounds in Columbus. It’ll be back up north in West Milford on Friday, May 24, for a ’70s garden disco to celebrate the Flower Moon. And on Thursday, June 6, Lunar Faire will celebrate its anniversary with a prom-themed fair in Augusta. Fair tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Check out Lunar Faire’s website and Instagram for more information.
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