Beacon preps for another creepy ‘night market’
For “creepsters,” this is the most wonderful time of the year, when art and performance celebrating the macabre emerges from the shadows leading to All Hallow’s Eve.
The second iteration of the homegrown “alternative night market,” Cirque du Creep, will take place at The Yard in Beacon on Friday (Oct. 11). The statistics reveal momentum: vendor applications doubled to 150 from its June debut. Booths and stations are up 25 percent, to 80. The first show, free for all, attracted about 700 people. This time around, admission is $10.
“Let’s see where it goes,” says Kailey McEneany, 29, who executed the concept with feet planted firmly in the DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos of hardcore punk. “So far, so good.”
Matthew Montleone of Honorable Ink on Main Street and other tattoo artists will provide flash sheets with smaller designs. DJ Shredder is building a six-hour goth rock, dark wave and dark electro music set. Artist Chelsea Bones will share her monsters and ghosts.
Oddities include “taxidermy, wood-burned bones and preserved bugs and butterflies,” says McEneany. “One artist makes rings with animal teeth.”
Many horror devotees revere Europe’s Gothic and Victorian eras. Ghosts are visitors from the past.
“I love old architectural stuff like that,” McEneany says, along with “vintage Halloween decorations and creepy dolls you found in your grandma’s basement that you think are possessed.”
Period clothing and weather-beaten leather jackets are popular, she says. Candles will be burned, tarot cards will be read and a jeweler who specializes in mock Gothic styles will be on hand.
Dark but colorful vendor names include Toxic Dreams, Ghouls Jewels, Wake the Devil, The Happy Headstone and Cursed Objects Vintage.
An artist herself, McEneany moved to Dutchess Junction two years ago to participate in the local scene. Her medium is epoxy resin ghosts, caskets and portraits, which she sells at street fairs and a Punk Rock Flea Market in Waterbury, Connecticut.
But she figured that instead of standing out in the everyday, why not bring fans of the morbid arts together?
McEneany and her fiancé train in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but really, she’s a softie who invited Hudson Valley Animal Rescue & Sanctuary to set up a booth with adoptable dogs and cats at the event where a butcher might be more appropriate to the theme.
Also, her palm-size ghosts are more cute than scary. She handcrafts tiny pink and black hats for them out of clay. Like the caskets, some are adorned with flowers.
She credits her spooky soul to her Uncle Doug, who babysat often and he fed his nieces and nephew a nonstop diet of horror films and hard rock before they could walk. Her parents listened to heavy metal.
“I’ve done some self-analysis,” McEneany says. “He created who I am today, but I’m in tune with a wide spectrum.”
She drifted toward emo bands like Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance, but her portraits depict iconic horror characters. The works, which reflect like glass, are created by “drawing a sketch and then sculpting an outline of the portrait from polymer clay,” she explains. “Then, I paste it down to create a mold, but from clay, then pour the epoxy resin when it’s dry so it’s all hand-sculpted, poured and painted.”
McEneany wanted to call her ghoulish event Creepshow after the 1982 film but because of a potential copyright issues translated the name to French. Cirque du Soleil’s legal department has yet to reach out.
“I’d love to do this on a more regular basis,” she says. “Maybe we can expand with punk bands and other edgy artists and performers. No butchers, though: We love animals.”
The Yard is located at 4 Hanna Lane in Beacon. Doors open at 5 p.m., and costumes are encouraged. Admission is $10 cash. Although children will be admitted free, there may be material displayed that is appropriate only for adults. The event will return to The Yard on Dec. 21.
