Visiting the Realm

Above: one of the twin banners framing the main stage at Faerieworlds! (The other one is a raven in a similar style and pose.) The art was done by the amazing Stephanie Lostimolo, whose work I have admired for years. Actually I own both of those two pieces of art in print form, and have for a while... so it was a pleasant surprise to see them decorating the stage like that. I knew she was a contributing artist/designer for the event but I didn't know to what extent.

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Well, here I am back at home again! We got back from our trip to Oregon (and Faerieworlds!) on Monday evening. I really wish we had more time there, but... I can't complain, because I was very fortunate to be able to attend this amazing event.

The drive there went pretty smoothly. Our car started to overheat just as we were in the last half hour of the journey, but we managed to pull into a gas station, buy some coolant and top it up enough to be able to carry on. I think we might have some sort of coolant leak somewhere, because we've had to top it up several more times after that. I'll have to ask my dad about it; he's the car wizard! Anyhow, it didn't seem to be anything serious, and it was fine on the way home (we didn't use the air conditioning any more after the overheat because I think that's partially what caused it -- it was a very hot day and we were not only driving for a long time, but we had the air on full blast).

We stopped in Seattle for coffee (went to the original Starbucks) as the Fox had never been before, so that was fun. We did end up missing the Faerieworlds opening spiral dance, which is a bit of a shame, but oh well.

After checking in to our adorable rented cottage (AirBnB is great), my friend J and I left for the first evening of Faerieworlds! I've heard others say that "the Realm" (as they call the festival) always feels like coming home, and I really have to agree. I immediately felt that I was among like-minded people, and I had a sense of kinship. Almost all of the attendees were dressed in costume; we saw fauns, kings, goblins, elves, wizards, and of course more faeries than you can shake a stick at. There were even some of those 4-footed animal costumes (specifically, a griffin-type creature) that have special stilts to make it look like you're walking on all fours. It was really amazing to see how much work everyone had put into these incredible costumes. I actually felt a little silly walking around in "normal" clothes, though of course no one was judging me for that.

There was a wonderful sense of community -- some of the attendees have been coming to Faerieworlds yearly ever since it began 14 years ago. You could tell that people wait all year for this event, to come and meet up with their other family in the Realm.

The actual event was held at a beautiful forested campground called Horning's Hideout (not far from Portland, Oregon), which I would like to visit sometime when there's not a festival on just because it was so lovely. There's a small (manmade?) lake surrounded by a tall-treed forest on all sides. It just added to the experience of being surrounded by magic.

As much as I was glad to have my friend there with me (and she enjoyed it very much as well), I think I might have been more inclined to try and talk to strangers and attempt to meet some new people if I had been there alone. I'm not particularly good at making new friends right off the bat, but I do like to try! But that's ok. Next year (I hope this can be a yearly event for me) I plan to go in costume because it just looked like so much fun. I would like to perhaps make some sort of dragon mask, and pair it with a mage-inspired outfit, to sort of emulate my Skyrim character (an Argonian battlemage). I didn't see any dragon-headed people, so that would probably make a unique and fun costume.

The variety and creativity of costumes was amazing, by the way. I think that is most of the fun for a lot of people -- just getting to dress up as something otherwordly, something magical for a while, and use their imaginations a bit.

There were a lot of free workshops and things too (which I intend to make more use of next year), and so many wonderful vendors selling all manner of handmade and magical items. Costume pieces and unique clothes, handmade incense, ethically harvested wolf and fox skins... all kinds of stuff. And art, too. I would one day love to sell my art at such an event...

And the music!

The music was one of the highlights for me, of course. Faun was just awesome live, and so was Wardruna. I wish I had had the courage to go down to the "mosh pit" and lose myself amongst all the other creatures while Wardruna was playing their stuff. But it was amazing just to experience it live (and it was their first time playing in North America)! I really hope they come back to Faerieworlds sometime. There were a lot of other really good musicians too, some of which I already forget the names of, but I kept the program so I can always take a look at that.

There were a lot of harps, and flutes, and hurdy-gurdies... lots of interesting instruments, and exactly the type of music I really love. There was actually a vendor selling handmade wooden Irish flutes, which I was able to try out. They were gorgeous. Wish I could afford one! But they're a bit out of my price range at the moment. Maybe one day.

So, all in all, it was a wonderful experience. Like I said, I do sort of wish that I was able to reach out and connect with more people there, but there's always next year. There's also a Facebook group which a lot of attendees seem to be on, so I'll probably be more active on that and try to make some more friends to hang out with next time. Not that I minded hanging out with J the whole time (she's one of my best friends), but I think if we don't try and mingle a bit more we'll be missing out on one of the whole points of the event.

Anyway! All in all, totally worthwhile and entirely exceeded my expectations.

The Fox seemed to enjoy the trip as well, though he didn't come to the festival with us, rather remaining in our rented cottage while we were there. I hope that next year he'll be recovered and able to come along with us.

Coming back to reality was a bit of a downer, of course... back to work, back to the grind, back to the daily drudge... but all I have to do is think about my experience at Faerieworlds and I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Knowing that there are people out there who are just as nuts as I am, and who like the same sorts of weird stuff that I like. I'm fairly sure there is a high percentage of pagan attendees too. I mean, Faun only had to mention the Horned God and massive cheers and howls would erupt from the crowd.

So that was our trip!

I'm still on too much of a happy cloud to talk about anything else right now, so I'll leave it at that! I have a 6-day work week coming up, so it's head down and plod along for a while. Not to mention I have to focus on refilling my poor, abused bank account...!

Bright blessings! (That's what they say in the pagan circles... I'd like to try it out!)