Wicked weekend: First-time Michigan Oddities and Horror Fest is scary success

Nate Thompson’s wish for a wicked weekend came true. Monroe’s master of the macabre transmogrified First Merchant’s Expo Center at the Monroe County Fairgrounds into a two-day creep show.

Dubbed the Michigan Oddities and Horror Fest, more than 100 artists and vendors haunted the first-time event and featured everything from horror-themed merchandise to real skulls and bones, tarot card and palm readings, food trucks, and a punk rock band.

Thompson, a filmmaker who owns and operates the Michigan Museum of Horror in downtown Monroe, said it’s a venue that he would want to be a part of.

“I try to create these things that would be really cool. With horror being my forte, these are my people,” Thompson said. “I’m going to look around myself and see what I can take home for the museum.”

Making her vendor debut was Janet Albright of Jumble Werks and her spooky collection of dolls and miniatures. Her life-size animatronics stood watch as customers shopped at her booth. The Swanton, Ohio, resident loves all things Halloween and horror.

“I used to build animations for Saks Fifth Avenue, so I love animated things and animatronics. I’ve been a collector of Halloween items forever and I love to do art, so I’m starting to make things like dolls and houses,” she said. “I try to use things that are already here and upcycle them.”

Dolls with hollow eyes, mouths stitched shut and blood-stained faces are some of Albright’s creations. She paints old dolls, turning them into creepily charming collectibles.

With piercing, milky white eyes and long black hair, a singing “Exorcist” doll lunges when you least expect it.

“She was actually a gift from my mother-in-law,” Albright said, laughing. “We got married on Halloween.”

Located in a corner booth was Greer Bowley of Toledo, Ohio, owner of Green Crow Plants, selling bioactive, handmade terrariums and houseplants.

“Bioactive terrariums have plants, soil and water,” Bowley said. “We use bugs to balance out any rotting plant material or mold that might develop so it is a contained ecosystem. The bugs we use are springtails – tiny, little white bugs you find in dirt.”

A wall of masks, props and horror movie action figures were just a few of the items Crypt Keepers Halloween Emporium of Sterling Heights featured. Serenity Broski, 15, stopped at the booth to check out the action figures.

Fremont, Ohio, residents Jackie Stein and Broski were among the first to attend the event. They drove an hour in search of oddities.

“We like going to the oddities expos,” Jackie Stein said. “I collect taxidermy and wet specimens and things like that. Today, I’m looking for human bones. I hope I can find vertebrae.”

Ashley Hambley of Toledo said she wasn’t shopping for anything specific but simply looking around and enjoying the event. Within a few minutes after the doors opened, Hambley bought a stone carving of Jack Skellington from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas” made out of goldstone.

Witches Connie Flanigan and Sam Draper of Magick in the Work closed their North Monroe Street metaphysical store for the weekend to set up shop at Horror Fest. The women offered tarot card and palm reading sessions along with herbs, crystals, spell kits and other spiritual items.

Flanigan said it’s important local businesses support one another and she’s making plans to be a part of the next Horror Fest.

Wet specimens and oddities were being sold by Brandon and Kristen Ollivander of Midland. The couple own and operate Internally Comatose Curiosities and Creations. Their booth offered small vials and large jars filled with various specimens like octopus tentacles, frogs, animal skulls and insects.

“We do a lot of skull displays and small oddities like mummified chicken hearts which we have because they are cute for Valentine’s Day,” Kristen Ollivander said. “We had some of the hearts in mystery boxes and we sold out.”

Among the many bewitching crafts by Monroe’s B.B. Crow (Bernadette Sanchez) were handmade hats and brooms she refers to as “eerily beautiful.” Sanchez’s hats are popular among customers because they are wearable art along with her one-of-a-kind, tea-stained witch poppets, each with its own name.

"Because they are pieces of me, they all get names as they leave me," she said.

By Sunday afternoon, many vendors had sold out of inventory and were heading home, a sure sign for Thompson the expo was a spooky success. The 26-year-old is already making plans for next year with the possibility of making the Michigan Oddities and Horror Fest an annual event.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: First-time Michigan Oddities and Horror Fest is scary success