This browser does not support the Video element.
Vendors turned away from Michigan Oddities and Horror Fest
There’s a big community of fans of all things horror across the Midwest, and the Michigan Oddities & Horror Fest is a home base for those folks. Basically, anything you can imagine that would be scary or outlandish can be bought and sold there.
MONROE, Mich. (FOX 2) - It was quite an unexpected fright for vendors hoping to show off and sell their freaky items at the Michigan Oddities & Horror Fest in Monroe over the weekend.
Several of them were told there was no room for them to set up shop after they paid to take part.
Big picture view:
There’s a big community of fans of all things horror across the Midwest, and the Michigan Oddities & Horror Fest is a home base for those folks. Basically, anything you can imagine that would be scary or outlandish can be bought and sold there.
The thing is, several vendors hoping to sell their wacky items say they were turned away, only to be told the organizers allegedly overbooked spots for merchants. Naturally, many had a problem with that and started sounding off on social media.
Dilon Cagle sells horror tapestries like blankets and says he was pretty teed off about it…but credits the organizer for trying to make it right.
"By the time we got there we were told that there was no spots available. We had reserved four spots, and we were told there were no spots available. A little shocked at first, and I questioned why would this be? And the lady informed us that they had overbooked. I can say that he’s reached out to most of us. He’s made it right with over half of the vendors."
The other side:
And tonight we are hearing from the show organizer, Nate Thompson.
He tells Fox 2:
"Yes! I made a catastrophic error with organizing this festival and was not able to fit the amount of vendors in that I thought we could. Last year we had an issue with others being given spots that wasn’t theirs, so that resulted in a cluster as well. All vendors that were not able to attend are actively being refunded in full!"
This, as another totally separate festival organizer, says he will do a different show at the Michigan Sports Facility in Jackson on February 28th hosting the displaced Monroe vendors for free.
"Anyone gets turned away, and it’s a shame, but some of these people I couldn’t fathom. They are like almost celebrities at this point to me, so I’m like, okay, this is bad," said Jackson expo organizer James L. Seagraves.