Over the past two years, a District-wide coven of sorts has emerged through DC WitchFest, as resident spell-casters have collaborated to celebrate witching culture. 

The DC WitchFest organization serves as a hub for the DMV’s witches and witch-curious individuals to curate a community of witchery through parties, markets and festivals. Organizers and vendors said the group allows for like-minded individuals to connect via their witch-centered interests and expand opportunities for celebrating the culture, not just during the Halloween season.

What began in 2023 as a small-scale maker’s mart and Halloween party at Metrobar has grown into an organization hosting year-round events, with this October’s five-hour-long festival spanning over the 2400 block of 11th Street between four locales: The Coupe, Red Rocks, El Chucho and Odd Provisions. In addition to the 28 vendors, which varied from tarot card readers to candlemakers, the organization partnered with advocacy groups like Free DC, Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid and All Souls Church Migrant Solidarity Team, who tabled at the businesses to discuss getting involved and supporting community efforts. 

Walking down the block, attire ranged from casual black shirts to Medusa crowns and ornate witch hats. Vendors set up shop under tents and wood paneling next to the sidewalk, with attendees packing the sidewalks and vendor stations, chatting with shop owners. On a sidewalk corner right past the last vendor, a four-person rock band performed, singing and playing their drums and electric guitars. 

Skye Marinda, co-organizer and tarot card reader, said she started the organization after organizing year-round Witches Night parties at the Dew Drop Inn, which include tarot readings and activities, to celebrate witchcraft. They said co-organizer RJ Lucas curated art markets at the time, and the two decided to collaborate to create the first WitchFest event with the goal of creating a hub for those interested in witchcraft. 

“I heard a lot of people on Saturday say that it was just cool to be in a fun environment where everybody was excited about doing witchy things and being able to meet people and talk about things,” Marinda said. “So I think it’s just created this space where people can come meet like-minded people.”

They said, from there, the organization has expanded to include events centered around other holidays and events relevant to witchery, such as equinox celebrations.

“We organize events for the equinoxes and the solstices, mainly,” Marinda said. “And so we have our upcoming Winter Solstice one that we do every year at Wonderland Ballroom down the street, also in Columbia Heights, and then we’re focusing on the Spring Equinox, The Summer Equinox and things like that.”

Marinda added that the events help create a space for magic-minded people to meet and do “witchy things,” like tarot card readings, and the number of opportunities for people in this sphere has been growing around the D.C. area. They said being able to foster more opportunities for these creative, niche communities has been a “cool” experience, expanding on opportunities in the D.C. area for witches to convene in a social manner. 

Marinda said this month’s event emphasized local witches’ want for social spaces like this, as interest in witchery has expanded in recent years, with attendees noting they wished the event was longer and hoped for larger gatherings in the future. They said the crowd’s excitement manifested through their intricate costumes and full-throttle displays of creativity through fashion.

“I think it’s cool to see so many people come together and be excited about Halloween, getting witchy, getting to put their creativity on display,” Marinda said. “Someone was dressed up in a banana witch costume that they made themselves, like the banana peel was the witch hat. Just cool stuff like that all day.”

Co-organizer RJ Lucas said she has been a D.C. resident for 15 years and has spent time organizing various happenings across D.C., especially in the art community — but she and Marinda wanted to craft an organization to host events to connect people with witchy interests, providing more opportunities for mystical meetups in D.C. 

“We both also have a cultural home in witchy communities and thought that this was a need for our city and wanted to create a home for everything witchy,” she said.

She said her favorite holiday to celebrate is the Winter Solstice because it gives her an opportunity to take a pause on the longest night of the year and reflect on what she wants to get out of the upcoming year, acting as a “New Year’s kind of moment” for her. 

She said WitchFest allows people in a hyper-political city to gather to do something that is not overtly governmental, though everything, including witchery, has political undertones. She said she loves going to the events and speaking to people who identify with less mainstream spirituality and seeing them excited to talk about these beliefs with other practitioners. 

“I see how excited people get that they get the opportunity to talk about it and be around other people,” Lucas said. “Being a less visible community in such a political city like D.C. can make folks feel a little othered or closeted. And I’m like, ‘No, they don’t have to be.’ Come hang out with us. We’re excited to see you.”

As a lifelong artist, Lucas said she balances reproductive justice advocacy work and her creative pursuits, which she views as “two sides of the same coin.” She said working with WitchFest has allowed her to expand her work in nature-forward art, creating fairies and fairy houses out of flowers and plants to sell at the maker’s marts.

She said the turnout at this event pleasantly surprised her and Merinda, allowing them to picture an expanded version of WitchFest in the future.

“Skye and I are just blown away with how many people not only were interested leading up to it but actually showed up,” she said. “Our events in the past have been a few hundred people who will come through throughout the day and a more typical community market kind of event. And this year is the first time that our dream of it being a festival — DC WitchFest — is really manifesting.”

Kona Jin Sislen, an astrologer, herbalist and co-owner of STRŌB Apothecary, said events hosted through WitchFest foster community through three facets — bringing together vendors across disciplines, creating a space for participants to gather and allowing all involved parties, from practitioners to attendees, to connect. 

“It creates more than just a moment of commerce but a sharing of practice, a sharing of curiosity and a little bit of a kinship,” they said. “Because I do think these events are bringing the seasoned witches and also those who are new to it.”

Sislen said they gave astrology readings at the event, asking patrons for their birthday, birth time and birthplace to give 10-15 minute micro-readings, providing insight into the visitors’ energy patterns.

“Whether that’s about their sun, moon and rising, which is your vital force, your emotional world and your identity and personality,” Sislen said. “Or if that’s a little more about career, love, relationships, gifts, challenges, shadows, lifepath, those tend to be the most common topics.”

They said vending at the events allows them to meet “open-minded” people, circulating knowledge about witchcraft and learning how different individuals go about their craft. They said witchcraft has historically been sidelined, and events like this allow the “modern revival” of the practice to grow. 

“You can learn from other people’s grimoires. You can absolutely learn from the internet,” Sislen said. “But there’s something about that one-on-one connection and learning from other people who have been doing the craft and walking the path that I find to be really important.”