The Abridged version:
- Local artists are preparing for the Goblin Market, a pop-up event that has brought thoughtful characters and interactive fantasy exhibits to life since 2013.
- Vendors encourage visitors to trade memories and experiences, instead of money, for their art pieces.
- The Halloween-themed market comes to Sacramento from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. this Saturday at a location that can only be deciphered through riddles.
This weekend, masked fantasy characters will set up shop next to woodland critters, their stalls offering handmade jewelry, sculptures and small jars of oddities. In the background, one might spot an Alice in Wonderland-themed character singing a song or a celestial-themed character marketing trinkets from all over the universe.
Among rows of vendors, each table brings a glimpse into unusual wares, curated and costumed characters and thoughtfully created fantasy realms.
The Goblin Market is coming alive this weekend, as local artists bring back their art pop-up and fantasy marketplace to Sacramento.
The event, which has taken place biannually for more than a decade, encourages guests to trade tales, promises and secrets — rather than conventional currency — for pieces of art.
“We’re not going to ask you for money,” said Elena Perez, a multimedia artist and one of the founders of the Goblin Market. “We’re going to ask you for something that’s actually valuable.”
Each event has its own tone
With events in the spring and in the fall, each Goblin Market event always has its own tone and unique group of vendors. For the event planned from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. this Saturday, guests can expect a darker, more Halloween-themed event that is open to people of all ages.
Visitors might find protective talismans for “the discerning traveler,” bottles that have been transformed into “potions and poisons” as well as everlasting flowers and a faery rummage sale.
Artists are preparing a lineup of interactive experiences as well, including the Wish-O-Matic machine, a fairy-themed post office and the Book of Apologies, which offers people a chance to “say what was left unsaid,” according to the event description.
“We’re giving people a sense of this otherworldliness,” said Evan Calderón, a frequent vendor at the market.
Calderon visited the Goblin Market in its early years as a child. Now an adult and an artist, they find the market to be a haven for expression. Calderón, who is neurodivergent and nonbinary, said that there aren’t many public events where they feel they can express themself and feel safe.
At the Goblin Market, though, they know they’ll be met with joy when they dress up with their friends as the Cheshire Cat, the white rabbit and other characters from Alice in Wonderland.
“It’s so connecting, it’s so personal, it’s so community building,” Calderón said. “You really feel like you have a community with everyone there.”
2013 event brought a ‘phoenix nest’ and tears
Perez and a group of artist friends devised the first Goblin Market event in 2013. She recalled attending an estate sale of an old downtown home where she found hundreds of plaster casts showing historic buildings and mementos.
“They were too pretty to throw away,” Perez recalled.
Joining efforts with a friend who had pottery pieces she wasn’t able to sell, they decided to get a small group together and set up shop near the Sunday Farmers’ Market under the freeway.
The event immediately captured inspiration both from the artists and from those who visited their stalls, Perez said.
Among the trinkets that Perez had set up was a odd bowl with ruffles that she marketed as a “phoenix nest,” as it had the same bright colors as the mythological bird.
When a prospective buyer came, Perez told her the price was “a story of death and rebirth.” The woman thought for a moment and then revealed her personal journey to leave a long-term abusive relationship and rebuild her life.
“She cried and I cried … and it was just this incredibly meaningful moment for both of us,” Perez said.
Since then, countless other moments have been shared between vendors and visitors to the Goblin Market. Some vendors have returned year after year while others only open up shop for a single season.
Perez said that she is happy that the market continues to bring a unique form of connection, free of charge.
“Money cannot create community; community is created through networks of support and connection,” Perez said.
Riddles guide the way to market’s location
The location of the Goblin Market’s arrival is always unpredictable.
Organizers set out riddles in anticipation of the event. The initial clues are more vague, but the riddles decrease in difficulty until the day of the event, when the address is revealed in full on the event’s social media pages.
The latest clue states:
“’In V__O Veritas’
Here’s a motto left undone,
Two letters fill the gap, not one,
Find two answers, one’s a phrase
Spoken oft in older days,
In a place that’s to our right,
The second — maybe hard to guess,
Names the business to our left,
Find these two and you will see,
In between them we will be!”
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.