It’s that time of year again, when normal people try to be spooky, weird people get weirder, and the truly spooky folks roll their eyes a whole bunch. On the heels of “NecronomiCon” making their Providence appearance, the Dark Arts Festival is making their presence known. The festival will take place on October 11 at the RI School of Design with an 11am start time and a grisly end at 6pm (followed by an afterparty and costume contest at nearby Club Medici).
The Dark Arts Festival is brought to you by Horror Depot, an organization that began with an affinity for all things, dark, spooky, and horror affiliated. The Horror Depot was founded by Joshua Dahlin, to connect with other folks in the horror community. He met several artists, filmmakers, creators, independent businesses, and vendors whose work is outside of the mainstream. He came to realize that there was a plethora of incredibly talented people in the horror community who simply had no way to either showcase or sell their work. This realization led to the creation of the Horror Depot website.
Unfortunately, at the time, the technology wasn’t up to the task and the website suffered from crashes and bugs. Dahlin took a couple of years off from pursuing it but kept the idea in his mind. After a time, he returned to the horror community and realized that the artists therein were not afforded the same opportunities as mainstream artists. This is when the Horror Depot became more than just a website.
This is where the idea for the Dark Arts Festival was born. He figured that if there was no showcase for these talented, albeit creepy, artists to share their work, then he would create one. This also inspired the Dark Reader events, where authors, artists, and creators could meet their audience, network, and have their work seen and appreciated. He began hosting independent horror film screenings, to give fledgling filmmakers a chance to be recognized.
Through the years the Horror Depot has grown as a community and also as a resource for artists of all types in the horror/fantasy world. It has become a place where everyone gets the opportunity to be seen, heard, appreciated, and supported. Many artists have been able to enjoy recognition they might not have seen otherwise. And in the end, it benefits everyone when artists are allowed to thrive within their communities.
The festival is an indoor / outdoor event and will be held rain or shine. It is one hundred percent accessible with handicap parking available. Parking in the city of Providence itself is free on Sunday.
Within the festival one can find dark oddities, art, homemade goods, jewelry, horror-inspired creations, and unique vendors from the horror and alternative arts communities. The festival prides itself on the fact that it allows absolutely no AI generated art and no art that is 3D printed. It is all genuine handcrafted art by genuine artists. This alone is worth the ticket as our society seems to be inundated with AI-induced sludge these days.
The festival will also feature food trucks for your culinary needs, an on-site brewery because… alcohol, a costume contest, drag shows (sorry MAGA), medium/tarot readings, sideshow performers, dancers, an all-abilitie4es art class running throughout the day, and a Project Purple fundraiser. Project Purple is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer. Founded in 2010, it helps provide funding for much-needed medical research as well as financial aid to patients and patient’s families battling pancreatic cancer. So come down and get your spooky act of charity together.
The aim of the festival is to bring together like-minded fans of all things horror as well as showcasing unique filmmakers, artists, authors, and creators of all kinds. Some are full horror, some gothic and mystical, and everything in between. There is a little something for everyone regardless of your personal dark tastes. Judging from the events held in the past, Horror Depot seems to be accomplishing just that.
General admission tickets are $10 in advance and can be purchased on horrordepot.com. Also available is a $30 VIP ticket which allows a 10:30am entry to the festival as well as a swag bag full of spooky goodies. General admission tickets will be available at the door for $15.
If you’re a fan of the macabre or an artist yourself who is looking to network with other like-minded people, the Dark Arts festival might just be for you. It is that time of year after all, might as well get spooky.