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.
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