The immersive alternative arts market returns to Beacon with more than 90 artists, live music, sideshow acts, and a celebration of the Hudson Valley’s growing fascination with the strange.
The Hudson Valley has always had a taste for ghost stories. Washington Irving gave America one of its foundational supernatural tales with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” while the region’s landscape has long supplied abandoned hotels, haunted roads, UFO sightings, and enough folklore to keep campfire storytellers occupied for generations. What’s changed in recent years isn’t our appetite for the uncanny so much as the way it’s found expression in public life.
Oddities markets draw thousands. Witchcraft boutiques have become neighborhood fixtures. Taxidermy, Victorian mourning art, cryptids, and vintage horror have drifted from niche subcultures into the broader creative mainstream. If Moon, Serpent & Bone‘s regular oddities market celebrates the beautiful and bizarre, and the region’s growing constellation of occult shops explores the mystical, then Cirque Du Creep occupies another corner of that expanding universe: equal parts art market, sideshow, punk show, and Halloween party in the middle of summer.
On July 25, the immersive event returns to The Yard in Beacon with its biggest edition yet, “Invasion of Camp Cryptid,” featuring more than 90 artists, makers, vintage vendors, and alternative small businesses alongside an evening of live entertainment.
Founded in 2023 by Beacon artist Kailey McEneany, who works professionally as TheDarkartstress, Cirque Du Creep grew out of a desire to create a marketplace for artists whose work didn’t quite fit into conventional craft fairs.
“Creating a space where alternative artists can thrive has always been the goal,” McEneany says. “Watching this community grow over the past three years has been incredibly rewarding, and I’m excited to showcase the amazing artists, performers, and creators who make Cirque Du Creep what it is.”
That community has expanded quickly. Thanks to a larger footprint at The Yard, this year’s event is expected to be the largest yet, drawing roughly 2,000 attendees. The lineup includes live music from 71′ Super Creep, Sound of a Smirk, and No More Sun; ambient performances by Egret Stilts and contortionist Pretzelle; and fire and sideshow acts from Hot Fix Sideshow, featuring performers with ties to Coney Island’s legendary sideshow tradition. Throughout the evening, haunt actors portraying aliens, cryptids, and horror characters will mingle with guests, while eight tattoo artists offer flash tattoos alongside body piercing and tooth gem artists.
The title, “Invasion of Camp Cryptid,” captures the event’s sensibility perfectly. It’s spooky without taking itself too seriously, embracing Bigfoot, mothmen, UFOs, and B-movie aesthetics with a wink rather than an invocation. Guests are encouraged to arrive in themed costume and become part of the spectacle.
Despite all the monsters, Cirque Du Creep remains decidedly family-friendly. Children 15 and under are admitted free, making it as much a community gathering as an alternative arts showcase. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.
As McEneany puts it, “Supporting local artists and small businesses is at the heart of everything we do. Whether it’s your first Cirque or your fifth, you’ll experience an unforgettable night of creativity, live entertainment, and community.”
In an era when the Hudson Valley’s creative scene increasingly embraces the weird, the macabre, and the delightfully off-kilter, Cirque Du Creep offers proof that sometimes the best way to celebrate summer is to spend an evening with monsters.
