Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
You can’t keep strange folk down for long. After a rather contentious parting of ways with city government in the fest’s original home, O’Fallon, Illinois, the Strange Folk Festival is back for its 10th year. The indie craft fair, one of the largest in the Midwest, will take over Union Station September 26 and 27. Makers of all stripes will be selling their wares in the train station–turned–mall–turned–partially empty space and fancy hotel.
“The space itself is one of the world’s largest adaptive reuse projects,” says Strange Folk founder Autumn Wiggins. “It’s a space I’ve been in as a kid; my mom would take me. I remember being fascinated with the space.”
Union Station initially caught Wiggins’ eye last year when she was scouting for a venue at a St. Louis Fashion Week event. “It was No. 1 in my mind,” she says, after it became clear that the festival would need a new home. “That was kind of the only one!”
Staff at Union Station helped her bring her vision to life. “The hotel is really elegant, and that’s not really Strange Folk!” Wiggins says. “It’s really big, this huge canvas to work with.”
Vendors will operate in the vacant stores on the second and third floors. Wiggins plans to group similar shops
together to help make the festival easier to navigate. “It’s not going to be like table, table, table,” she says. “I love the way it all fits together.”
She’s working out installations that take advantage of elements already in place—for instance, moss climbing steel girders, simulating what might have happened to the space if the mall hadn’t come in and nature had just taken over. “There were doors that hadn’t been opened for years and years,” she says. “It feels like it wants some fresh air.”
About 10 bands will play on the Hooters stairs to entertain people inside and outside the mall. In the parking lot will be 25 food trucks, plus trapeze artists. The hours are a bit different from prior years’: 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday.
Wiggins has instituted pay-as-you-wish ticketing for this year’s festival. Admission will always be free, but you can choose to support the festival financially, public
radio–style (right down to the tote bags). Buying tickets at varying levels of support gets you a percentage off your purchase, plus other goodies, such as a tote bag, T-shirt, or book.
Putting on a DIY craft fair with more than 200 vendors presents plenty of challenges on its own, and holding it in a semi-empty shopping mall brings new ones—but it also brings new opportunities.
“It’s going to be something no one’s seen before,” Wiggins promises.
For more information, visit strangefolkfestival.com.
