Oddities & Curiosities Expo creeps into Phoenix this weekend

If you were the kid who spent hours watching scary movies or playing with the oozy, bug-like creatures born from your Creepy Crawlers oven, prepare to relive that thrill at the Oddities & Curiosities Expo in downtown Phoenix.

The world's largest traveling oddities event will take over the Phoenix Convention Center’s South Hall from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, and Sunday, March 23.

Vendors from across the country will bring eye-drawing merch ranging from medical curiosities and specimens, taxidermy, grim and obscure home decor, jewelry, makeup and clothing to one-of-a-kind macabre art, horror-inspired baked goods and more.

The vendor list includes several past and present Arizonans, including Tucson-based antique artist and taxidermist AJ ov Algol. If you’ve ever wanted a sconce with two goat head skeletons with flaming lightbulbs coming out of their mouth, he's your guy.

"My main thing is lamps," says the artist. "I make them out of animal bones and skulls. I'll have a wide variety of one-of-a-kind table lamps made from animal vertebrae and leg bones and vintage wall sconces with animal skulls.”

For a touch of gothic elegance, Our Darling offers Victorian-inspired cosmetics with a nod to mourning rituals; its products were recently seen on Sosie Bacon on the Oscars red carpet.

“Having lived in Phoenix over a decade ago, I’m excited to return for my second year in a row with Oddities & Curiosities and to see the growth in Phoenix’s alternative community,” Our Darling founder Angelina Sombrotto says.

Other Arizona vendors include The Heathenry, a Phoenix-based collective of queer and trans artists, makers and dreamers who use locally sourced plants, bones, and dried insects to handcraft intentional natural art pieces to display; and Chino Valley-based Desert Quill, which makes and sells intricately designed bone and taxidermy art with whimsical landscapes in frames and glass domes.

”Each Oddities event gives local and traveling artists an opportunity to exhibit and sell their art, so I think it's great that they started holding events in Phoenix,” AJ ov Algol says. “It's a huge benefit for local alternative artists as we now have a place to show our art to a huge audience and it gives people the opportunity to see different styles of art they may have never seen before."

Tickets for the Oddities & Curiosities Expo are $11 for adults; children ages 12 and under get in free.

Each day of the show offers special classes; on Saturday, guests can also take an Introduction to Taxidermy class that runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $225 and admission is included. On Sunday, entomology classes are offered that will teach participants how to prepare and pin insects. The beetle class runs 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the spider class is 1:30 to 4 p.m.; each class is $150 and general admission is included.

Visit the Oddities & Curiosities Expo website for tickets and more information.