This weekend, Monster Market returns for its seventh annual pop-up, this year at the Medicine Factory. And as with years before, it’s expected to be a graveyard smash.
Founded by illustrator Lauren Rae Holtermann, better known as Holtermonster, the weeklong market opens on Friday, October 13th, and will feature “weird” art, oddities, apparel, home decor, and more, made by over 80 makers from all over the country. (Think Dracula earrings, cemetery photos, Bigfoot illustrations, carnivorous plants … honestly, “weird” covers it.)
Holtermonster, whose own work finds influence in pop culture, comics, and horror, says when she first started selling her work at markets and festivals, “I felt like I was always kind of the odd one out, like style-wise. And so, if my people weren’t coming to the markets I was selling at, I thought wouldn’t it be kind of fun if I could make a special event for all the weird people and weird makers?” Thus, Monster Market was born.
Since that first year in 2017, Holtermonster says the market has only grown, even when it went online for a few years due to Covid. “Since this year it’s coming back [fully in-person], I really wanted to bring the community into it more,” she adds, “so I picked more local makers than we usually do.”
One such local maker new to Monster Market is Cassie Rutherford of Curio Creations, who makes terrariums “created from ethically sourced butterflies, bones, plants, and the curiosities in between,” as their Instagram bio states. Another whom Holtermonster points out is tattooist Nour Hantouli, who will sell preserved tattoo specimens on pig skin (they’ll also sell non-taxidermy stickers). And, of course, Holtermonster will sell her work, including shirts, stickers, and this year’s Time Warp Drive-In posters.
Monster Market’s opening night on Friday at 5 to 9 p.m. will include bites by Loaf Memphis and Allie Trotter’s Whisks of Doom, plus cocktails by Cameo and Old Dominick Distillery, and brews by Meddlesome Brewing Company and Wiseacre Brewing Co. (Holtermonster says you can expect the food and drinks to be on theme.) St. Francis Elevator Ride will also spin spooky tunes, and Creature Studio will provide an AR experience all week long.
The market will be open Saturday-Wednesday, October 14th-18th, noon-7 p.m., at the Medicine Factory. Whisks of Doom will have a Wake & Bake Sunday morning at 11 a.m., complete with tasty breakfast treats and cold brew coffee.
The event is card only. Find more information, including a full list of vendors, here.
