WitchsFest USA: Annual Street Faire Celebrates Pagan Traditions

EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — For practitioners, enthusiasts and anyone interested in learning about pagan traditions, it’s the annual gathering of witches on July 15. WitchsFest USA, also known as the Pagan Street Faire, returns for its sixth year on Astor Place between Broadway and Lafayette Streets.

The event, hosted by Rev. Starr RavenHawk and Rev. Luna Rojas of the NYC Wiccan Family Temple, will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, with an after-party on July 16 from 4 to 7 p.m. Light drinks and food will be served at the after-party, culminating with a losing ceremony where organizers will bid their guests adieu.

Attendees of the Saturday faire can dress in costumes based on woodland creatures of “the realms of the fae, nymphs [and] satyrs” for a day of workshops intended to expand participants’ knowledge of practical magic. There will also be a summer blessing festival and performances by tribal bellydance trio Witchmaste, Dragon Ritual Drummers from Canada, the Kandake Dance Theatre for Social Change and others.

The Pagan Street Fair is also set to feature 15 presenters, including psychic mediums, New Orleanian priestesses, local small business owners, poets and historians.

A full list of presenters is available on the organizers’ website.

Organizers have also called upon attendees to bring nonperishable food items on July 15 for City Harvest, a local non-profit working to end hunger in New York City communities.

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