Greetings from World Oddities Expo, 2023!
Hello, Traveler! This past weekend the World Oddities Expo, a traveling oddities fair, made its way through the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia. I’ve been to a few curiosity shops, but this experience was amped up to 10!
According to their own website (embedded above), this is the third event they’ve had in the city, and demand was so great they made it a two-day affair, and I can understand why. Five rows of shops were lined along Hall F on the second day, which I attended with a companion.
For those who don’t know, a curiosity shop, or an oddities shop, sells and features things that aren’t societal norms in America. Want some taxidermy ducks? Head to your local curiosity shop! Need any coffin nails or dirt? They’ve got it at your local curiosity shop! Did you want to buy an extracted kidney stone, Traveler? You can find it at your local..you get the idea.
Now imagine that kind of store, but there are about 40 of them under one roof, and that’s the World Oddities Expo. Also, it’s a traveling show, so they won’t just be in Philadelphia this summer. Their locations are once again found on their website, but they have dates upcoming in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago, among others!
WOE isn’t just shopping, though! They sell tickets to specialty classes such as dissecting owl pellets or how to perform taxidermy, although tickets for these events do come at a premium. They have free events, too! The photo below featured a quartet performing live music to a silent horror film.
The vendors were excellent, and I found an incredible haul I’m posting below. Tell me, Traveler, where else can you get a print of a ghost ship, a four-leaf clover, a tattoo, learn about taxidermy, and pick up an Ouroboros ring? (I didn’t get the tattoo or learn taxidermy.)
The ghost ship print is from Man Fish Inc, the Enby ghost pin is from Queerly Departed out of Connecticut, the cryptid stickers are from Galaxy Brain Design, the ring is from Necronomicharm, and finally the four-leaf clover was caught in south Philadelphia by kindred urban explorer, Sonic8Ball! Next year, I’ll get some t-shirts.
But in three hours, we worked up such a hunger that, unfortunately, a pretzel wouldn’t be enough for me. Luckily we were not even half a block from the famed Reading Terminal Market! 75 restaurants can be found in this former rail car hub, and we went with Filipino flavor!
I ended up with the spaghetti in a Filipino sauce, complete with cut sausage. The food looked good, smelled great, and it tasted absolutely perfect.
Overall, World Oddities Expo is my favorite event of the year so far. Come for the weird, and stay for the acceptance!
