Free Advice on Creating a Fairy Festival in Your Home Town

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" We hand out free advice and then pay you to take it ... because that's the kind of give-back society we live in these days. Please let me know if you haven't taken a single pay cut since 1990. I'll be amazed.

I somehow can't leave comment replies when I'm at work, so today I'm addressing a commenter who wishes there was a festival in his or her area.

The Spoutwood festival began with a group of close friends who gathered on May Day for a picnic. Everyone brought something, and fairy attire was optional. Through word of mouth, the picnic grew year by year. The key is that it didn't remain one little clique, and all were welcome.

My free advice to those of you who have no faerie/Pagan events in your area is to invite all of your friends and acquaintances to a picnic in some benign (and shady) local park. If you're really motivated, you can rent or reserve a pavillion. Facebook would be helpful to get the word out. Start with modest but festive attire, and bring any instrument you know how to play.

From such humble origins grew one of the largest fairy festivals on the East Coast. If you ask me, the key is to find a terrific location where people can socialize and then wander around enjoying the beauty. I would also choose a date in May or June when the weather is at its most benign. (Earlier in the South if it's very warm.)

Perhaps another key is to minimize the Pagan element of the gathering, acknowledging Beltane but not omitting your Christian friends. There's no way a May Day event will ever turn Christian, so you can add rituals as the thing gets traction.

So, there you have it! At the very least a fun picnic, at the most the beginning of something that will spin major.

Blessed be,
Anne