Driving down Highway 126 towards Veneta, I followed a car with a sparkling wing slightly poking out the driver’s side window. The car had a Texas plate, but a fairy was driving the car- quite literally a girl dressed in bright red and orange tights wearing wings.
We both were headed to the Faerieworld’s Festival at the Secret House Winery. The festival is much like the Country Fair only the party is themed. Characters galore adorned themselves with elaborate costumes and slowly danced about the winery’ meadow.
Nearly everyone who attends seems to take on some role, playing their own part in making up this fanciful world. There were green fairies with wooden wings, trolls covered in mud, the 50-year-old Peter Pan was even there playing guitar.
Everyone at one point formed a ring nearly 50 yards wide, held hands and began dancing in great spirals around a drum circle. Plumes of dust coiled up among the dancers and into the air.
As a photographer, the experience was like being armed with a camera and dropped into a J.R.R. Tolkien novel. I would shoot photos and talk with such people as Theaddeus, a goblin with sharp teeth, and Sigh Moon, a mild mannered and colorful bear.
I left the festival and headed to Portland for a friend’s birthday. When asked who had drawn wings on my back, no one believed me when I told them a fairy had.