International Folk Festival

International Folk Festival
September 26th and 27th, Fayetteville, North Carolina

This is a two day event in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I was so glad I found parking right away, but I'm a pretty lucky person when it comes to parking. I couldn't see the festival from the main roads.  But I followed the sound of old Irish tunes, the Native American frocks, and the smell of deliciousness and I knew I was there. I believe the saying is, "Follow your nose." Tizi, my son, was happy to go to a festival so close to home. We still arrived at around 1:00pm. We are just not early risers on the weekend. We need to get better at that. So we arrived to the Irish music a-playin' and there were people a-stompin' and a-clappin' on the corner and so did Tizi. He loves that music, he may be Mexican-American but by-gholly, he's also Irish-American. Well we listened a little while and then got moving. 


Then we passed a sidewalk full of people just like us, smelling the delicious food. The first booth we saw had Mexican food, then Puerto Rican, Carribean, Italian, Greek, Costa Rican (icees), Tai, Chinese, and Japanese. Whatever kind of food your mouth was watering for, it was there. We settled for baklava and pizza. We past several shops with crafts and jewelry and blown glass from different areas around the world. We crossed over a bridge into a large grassy area. There was a stage to the left that had Greek children dancing. Then there was Tai dancing and sparring, then Hawiian, then Aztec. (Their outfits were really cool.) The stage to the right had a Puerto Rican band. There was more food all around from hotdogs to hamburgers and Domino's Pizza to, well I don't really know what kind of food that other stuff was, but it sure smelled good. Domino's gave away some free beach balls to all the children. 


The beach balls were the highlight of the event for me. I mean culture is cool and all, but fun is most important. My son started running around all over the place with a whole bunch of children. Children are so magical, no shyness at all. It was a cloudy day. It had rained earlier in the morning so the grass was wet and had mud under it. So the children ran and ran and fell and got mud all over themselves. Just made me remember how fun it used to be to be a kid running around in the rain without a care in the world. Then these teenagers came into the circle where the little ones were playing. Some teenage B-boys started to break dancing. They were doing the coolest moves and handstands. This was totally unrelated to the Internation Folk Festival, just kids having fun, but wow. That was the best part. So then we left.


I will go again next year since it is so close to home. It's mostly an event for the food. Really not a lot of kids activities unless you consider socializing an activity. It's definately a cultural event. But I think it may be a cool date idea for next year.

Central NC Pagan Pride Day

Central NC Pagan Pride Day
September 19th and 20th, 2009, Raleigh, North Carolina


It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, around 90 degrees with a nice breeze. It was perfect. I got up early on that September 19th, but still had a late start. I just had some last minute decisions to make before traveling to Raleigh from Fayetteville that Saturday morning. So I got myself and my son ready and stopped by the store to get some light snacks for the trip on the way to the festival. This was the first two day Pagan Pride Day festival for central North Carolina. I have never been to any of the others, so this would be a new experience for me.


We arrived in Raleigh, the exact way my Google Maps directed us to the State Fair Grounds. I just had to find Gate 5. I past Gate 11 and stayed with the traffic. I saw lots of people. I thought, wow, this is the hugest festival I have ever seen for Pagans. I was so excited, but everyone was wearing red. I thought, “Oh my, I didn’t get the memo. Was I supposed to wear red?” But I just kept driving. Then I started to look at these red people and they all looked like frat boys and jocks and they carried flags with them. I thought, “Hmm. This can’t be right.” Then I realized I was going to the North Carolina State Arena or something. I don’t know; a place where they do sports or something. So I said well this must not be the right place and I kept driving and driving. After a while, I thought it best just to turn around and go into Gate 11. The State Fair Grounds cannot possibly be that big.


So I found a parking spot right in front. Ooh, I was so happy. I decided to just leave my canned food in the car until I find where I need to take it. My son, Tiziano, and I began walking around the flea market on our little adventure of finding the entrance to the Pagan Festival. I thought, well, this is cool, but it looks like a flea market, not a festival. And I kept thinking, where do we turn in our cans? And how do they know all these people are allowed to be in here and if they’ve turned in their cans? Well we walked…and we walked…I enjoyed the flea market very much. We went into the in-door flea market. It was very nice; still, just a flea market. I blame myself for being lost. I am very shy and do not like to ask for directions. But then Tizi was getting hungry, and I wanted to wait for the food at the festival to see if there was anything interesting to eat, but it was time for some kind of food for the little guy. I got him some mint chocolate chip ice cream. He loved it. I had a bite and it was quite delicious. And I asked the ice cream lady where the festival was. She pointed behind her and said, “It’s probably back that way.” So, we walked again in the general direction of the ice cream ladies finger.


Finally, we found the festival. I knew I was going the right way, because I started hearing what sounded like beautiful Celtic sounding music. It sounded like a spiritual meditation about halfway down the parking lot towards the festival. It was about 2 hours after we arrived in Raleigh, so it was around 3:00 pm when we entered. The man at the entrance was very nice. I told him I left my cans about 2 miles back and he let me decide how much money to give him for our entry fee. I donated $5.00 for entrance.


It was like I had just stepped into another world from the flea market surrounding I had left; a beautiful serene world, with ambiance and music to match. It really was a perfect location for the festival because there were large oak trees all about giving lots of shade. But there was also a large open field of grass for circles, seating, and children running. There is a path with waiting picnic tables through the center. Then there was a lovely large riverside deck with ducks surrounding. My son found the ducks most exciting, but he is only five. The bathrooms were a little less than desirable for a ½-Virgo, but it is outdoors and I was expecting port-o-johns, so I was still happily surprised that they had plumbing. We walked all around and then went back and played with the ducks.


The Greek Festival was catering the Pagan Festival, so there were an abundance of stuffed grape leaves (my favorite), cucumber dressing and salad stuffed pitas, and most importantly bottled drinks. The food and drink (hydration) are the most important and the most profitable parts of a festival, so I was a little surprised that there were no other food vendors, but I don’t eat much and I wasn’t staying for an extended amount of time, so Greek was good to me.


There was an abundance of shops. Honestly, I didn’t know there were so many pagan shops in North Carolina. You know we are stuck in our own little hole working, so we don’t often see what’s going on in the rest of the world. There were easily 30 – 40 shops and there was something for everyone. Some one was selling these musical instruments that looked like symbols, and they sounded like thunder. There were people selling staffs and handmade wands. There were clothes and jewelry. There was a little book store. There were candles and herbs and altar boxes. It was pretty awesome. There were also people there doing face painting and henna tattoos. My son got a henna lizard on his forearm. During his tattooing, he was so still and quiet and mesmerized looking at the dainty artist’s beautiful bosoms in her medieval bodice. It was cute. He’s definitely all boy. I think there was even drool.


There were also children’s activities and grown up sparing with real swords and armor. My son loved the sparing. But we had arrived late, so we missed the children’s activities. We are kind of fly-by-the-seat of our pants kind of people anyway. My son made friends with some children in the grass. The rolled down the hill and ran around in circles. It was precious. The people there were all unique and refreshing. There were people dressed in belly dancing outfits and people dressed in witchy Halloween outfits and people just dressed like a day in the park.


I left around 5:30 pm. I didn’t have a program of events, so I didn’t know they were going to do a nighttime circle at 6:00 pm or I would have stayed. The planners were kind enough to allow me to use some of their pictures for my newsletter.


All-in-all, despite the fact that I got lost in the flea market, if you are new age, pagan, or spiritual, you would have enjoyed this event. There were children’s activities, art, music, food, fun, dancing, jewelry, cute single guys and girls, and a drum circle. Who doesn’t LOVE a good drum circle? And if you love flea markets, you have to take a daytrip down to the State Fair Grounds because, we saw a dog show. And we passed the Greek festival and we saw a tailgate party thing. At the same time, there was also a train show, not to mention all the great deals you find at flea markets. So thumbs up for this festival and thumbs up for the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh, NC. I’m definitely going to go back next year.

Introduction to the Dream Traveler

My name is Melanie Banks, melanie@dinahsdreams.net, I am the second child of Dinah at Dinah's Dreams (www.dinahsdreams.com). Years ago, in 1990 when my grandmother Nancy (Gramma) owned the shop, it was called Visions. Some of you know my older sister Amy. Both of us worked since the shop's conception. We have a brother, Jacob. He makes wands and woodcrafts. I have worked in the shop since I was around 11 years old and now I run the Web Site.

Several generations in both my mother's and father's side of the family believed in magic, astrology, and psychic energy. I remember Mom and Gramma used to do astrology charts by hand. By hand, it took three times to get my chart right, because it is so complex. I was born on a cusp. That means I was born between signs. I have to read both Virgo and Libra horoscopes, and it's still isn't quite right. There really isn't a horoscope for us weirdos. I was born on Mabon (September 22nd) at 2:22 pm to be exact. Can you guess my lucky number?

Gramma taught metaphysical classes since 1968 up north. While owning she shop, when I was a teenager, she taught for several years, and I attended all her classes. But she and Mom taught me lots before the classes started. It was just fun to go to these classes with other interesting people. Some of the other shop owners in town also attended those classes when they were younger and before they owned shops. I like to think my grandmother helped them open their mind a little to more things which lead them to opening shops. Who knows, I feel we have touched a lot of people in positive ways and helped to spread the movement of acceptance.

At the time we opened our shop in North Carolina, Dion Warwick and Ms. Cleo hadn't begun their psychic communities, so there was little tolerance to psychic readings or even having your palm read. We were taboo. There were some very trying and crying times in the beginning for us and our shop. (Some reading this can probably relate. It's hard to be different.) People would come and yell at us and say very hurtful things that were traumatizing, especially for a child working in the shop, knowing that we were doing nothing wrong. We were evicted from two flea markets in town because psychic readings were considered unacceptable; first Raeford Road Flea Market and then the Bragg Blvd Flea Market, so we had to be very careful about what we sold. Finally, we found our home at the US Flea Mall. As a preteen and teen, because of all the anger towards us, I put a wall up and became very defensive, wore all black and died my hair to match for years. I constantly thought I had to defend myself and my beliefs. After all the telephone/television psychics began making it "ok" to have psychic readings, the previous flea markets have since allowed shops like ours to exist. So when the Bragg Blvd Flea Market began accepting people like us, we were able to convert my father's shop from an antique store to one like ours.

The Fenix House has grown and changed and it has its' own unique brand of products that offer something a little different than our shop, but still similar in nature. And now, with all the acceptance going on, there is an abundance of metaphysical, new age, pagan, wiccan, psychic (whatever you want to call them) shops all over the place. There is something for everyone and each place is a little different. There is some pretty cool stuff and people out there. It's awesome and the variety is endless, which is why I want to start this series of articles.

When I attend events or places that people like us would like to visit, I'm going to write about them. In my next article I will talk about Pagan Pride Day in Central NC. Did anyone else attend? Write me! Write me! Write me! ( I was conjuring up some email, teehee) and tell me how you liked it. Personally, I thought it was awesome!

Seriously, I love hearing from like minded people. Write me just to say "Hey", if you want. (Melanie@dinahsdreams.net) If you have an event you want me to attend, let me know. Invite me. I will write about it. Oh! Oh!...if you attended an event or a fun place around here, tell me, write an article about it. You can be "The Dream Traveler" too. Or suggest I go and take my son, if you don't want to write an article!

Oh, by the way, I only attend family friendly things. I am molding a young mind. He goes where I go. No nudity for me please. But if you attended something with nudity, and you want to tell people about it, that's cool. Write me. I may do an article on it...maybe. :-)

More to come later from the Dream Traveler. (lol)