As a guest or pop-up vendor, finding Spiritual, Metaphysical, Holistic, Healing Arts pop-up markets around San Antonio can be tough, because they all don’t have a website or might only advertise by word-of-mouth.

That being said, San Antonio is a fairly open minded city for spiritual events. I traveled a few times to art and crafts pop-up markets in the small towns around Dallas, and that crowd was not welcoming; guests even seemed to avoid eye contact with me because of the spiritual-based art I took. Who new my happy rainbow could be so offensive? Anyways, when it comes to pop-up markets for spiritual-based services and products, I have not been snubbed here in San Antonio.

I was just finally starting to make more money than my booth fees in February 2020, right when the pandemic struck. At that time, I did not want to risk my health/safety, so I stopped going to any pop-up market as a guest or vendor.

Anyways, here is a list of the local healing arts pop-up markets around San Antonio, post-pandemic.

The White Mage Fair

https://whitemagefair.com

Location:

Varies, but the first event is at the Love Shack Art Gallery.

Duration:

1 day, various recurrences

Highlights:

• Indoors
• Free On-site Parking
• Official website

Cons:

• Small event

Entry Fee

• Free

Vendor Info:

• Vendors sign up on the website.

About:

Well, this is my event that I run. It’s a small, but beloved event. As a vendor and as a guest, I like to be comfortable; I like air conditioning and I like on-site parking. As a vendor, being able to sign-up for an event on a website makes sign-up easy. As a guest, being able to discover and research an event with a website is easy; I don’t use social media personally, so when events only advertise through social media, I literally can’t learn about them as often times you need to be logged in to read the information. I do realize some people use Facebook, and have a Facebook page, but I am not looking to pour a lot of time into corporate social platforms that will fade away. As an event organizer, I do filter the vendors that participate; I only want people with a good vibe and professionalism joining the event as vendors; this means, I avoid MLMs and anything that can be clearly de-bunked with a quick Google search. I don’t want the credibility of the approved vendors watered down by unsavory vendors.

Since the first event is at the Love Shack’s art gallery, some of the vendors plan to focus more on a dating/love/romance/sex angle for their readings, while others will have their normal offerings as-is. I have yet to schedule another event yet, but hope to do so for the Spring or Summer.

The Healing Dragon

Location:

77 N.E. Loop 410, San Antonio TX 78213

Duration:

Monthly, but may shift away from holidays

Highlights:

• Indoors
• Free On-site Parking
• Nice venue

Cons:

• Lack of adverting, outreach, the world’s best kept secret, including when actively searching for information.
• For vendors – PDF style contract seems old-school.

Entry Fee

• Free

Vendor Info:

• Vendors must email the organizer and sign a contract.

About:

Well, I went to this pop-up as I was considering being a vendor. It seems like a clone of the Metaphysical Gathering, even down to the contract template.

These people surely like to be the world’s best kept secret, as it was not easy for my to find out about the event. I got an email about the event directly from a vendor. I did ask to be added to an email list for interested vendors or guests, but that does not seem to have happened.

As a vendor, I was not quite convinced on the advertising investment in proportion to the table fee. Personally, I do think all events need a website and I would not consider making a free online event listing as paid advertising; I do appreciate them at least posting to the event listing though. A website would allow for more event research and organic SEO discovery by new guests, which is so important. I would also recommend flooding more platforms, as I do for my events, like EventBrite, TPR, and all of the other free places to post. As it stands, one vague SA Current event post is the top Google search result.

Despite that, there were people at the event, At first I thought it was more people, but then I kind of thought it was the vendors walking around as some of the guests, so I would need to look again to gauge foot traffic. I did notice MLMs as vendors, including LifeWave and Dottera, which I personally don’t like, but it is their event so they are free to set their standards as to what represents them. I am surely #antimlm and feel like they are predatory in nature; I don’t necessarily want to be associated with MLMs.

I went ahead and did a reading with one of the vendors. I actually had my heart set on doing a reading with my go-to tarot lady, but she was not there, so I tried a new woman who did a medium-ish/energy reading. She did seem legit, although, ya know, the reading may not be exactly what you ‘want.’ I do get that though, when I do tarot readings for people, I say what the cards mean, even if it does not meet the person’s wishes. I did notice the readers had very steep prices, so I went with the cheapest person for 30ish dollars. One vendor was asking $40 for 10 minutes…. yikes. I mean, even when I do tarot readings, depending on the reading type I will normally be in the $15 to $20 range and don’t set hard time caps.

My mom ended up buying a stone too, which she seemed happy with.

I suppose my other observation was there seemed to be a lot of overlap in vendor selections, particularly stone/gemstone vendors. I do get it as an event organizer though, in trying to cover venue costs and accepting vendors.  I do almost wonder if they had less MLMs, if they would attract other vendors that might avoid MLM-friendly markets.

 

Mystic Market

https://www.facebook.com/Bestmysticmarket/

Location:

The Pearl (for San Antonio events)

Duration:

1 day, monthly recurrence

Highlights:

• Indoors

Cons:

• Extremely limited parking. You are likely to have to park across the bridge in the neighbourhood in front of someone’s private house.
• Unofficial looking sign-up for vendors.
• No official website.

Entry Fee

• Free

Vendor Info:

Vendors sign up on a Google Form.

About:

I have been to this event before the pandemic. It was a pretty large with a good number of vendors; I did like the diversity of vendors. The event had a calm and serene vibe. I ended up getting a henna tattoo covering both of my arms, a moss agate necklace, and some energy healing. I was recovering from the worse relationship of my life, so I was trying to treat/care for myself. The necklace I bought actually quickly broke, which is not the fault of the event, but did start me on the path to jewelry design.

Like a vulture, I moved around the small parking lot a few times, but eventually drove across a bridge and deep into a neighborhood to parallel park my car. I don’t really appreciate when businesses don’t offer planned official options for parking. At the time I was driving my old Nissan, but with my new car, I don’t do street parking anymore after someone was texting-and-driving and crashed into my parallel parked car.

As a pop-up market vendor, I have not participated in any event with a Google form sign-up. It seems to unofficial. There are endless amounts of scammers on Facebook trying to hijack event postings to get people to send money from reveal events, to spoof event organizers. In fact, someone has tried to scam people in this way from my own event. This isn’t so say I would never sign-up using a Google form, but it would take a lot of convincing.

https://www.facebook.com/TheHealingArtsFestivalandMarket

Location:

Hilton Garden Inn San Antonio – Live Oak Conference Center

Duration:

1 day, monthly recurrence

Highlights:

• Indoors
• Free, on-site parking

Cons:

• Unofficial looking sign-up.
• No official website.

Entry Fee

• Free

Vendor Info:

Not sure

About:

I have not been to this event, but I certainly did try. My friend told me she was going to the event on a Saturday, so I wanted to check it out too. I drove over to the event, but it turned out I had the wrong Hilton and the wrong day (it was actually on Sunday). I had a tough time trying to figure out the proper date and location as I did not want to have to login to a Facebook account for the information; once I found I had the wrong day and place, I went home. The event is on the opposite side of the county from me, so I just did not want to make the drive again and risk having the information wrong again. Perhaps, when I have more time, I will try it again one day.

Nourish Healing Bazaar

https://210nourish.com/calendar/

Location:

Duration: 1 day, monthly recurrence

Highlights:

• Outdoors/Indoors
• Free, on-site parking

Cons:

• Small event
• Sardine packed vendors

Entry Fee

• Free

Vendor Info:

It looks like the email info is listed on the event instance on their website.

About:

Someone my mom knows suggested this event to my mom, so we went. It was a pretty small event the first time we went. Most of the vendors were outside and some of them were inside. The event is basically held at a metaphysical / spiritual shop. They open up their back door and have the event spill onto the patio, so if you do make your way there, be sure to pull around to the back of the building if the front door is locked. I did end up winning a calendar-book for my mom there after leaving a Google review, so that was a nice bonus.

This event did offer group session or demos with different practioners through the time there, To me, “bazaar” sounds kind of chaotic and noisy, but despite the name, the event was very quiet and peaceful.

My mom ended up doing a reiki session at the event. I thought it was strange, since I could have done it for her for free, but I was not going to make her second guess her choice. We also both got acupuncture done. I was totally scared it would hurt, but I did not feel any pain. I was surprised at how much energy I could feel moving around; it was an interesting combination of metaphysical effects based on a physical interaction. We went back to the same place for a night event, and I went back solo for more acupuncture.

Another time I went, the event flipped. It was mostly indoors, with a few outdoor overflow vendors. That time the event was accessible from the front of the building, but it made more sense for trying to find the place for new people, so it was a smart move I would think. That time, the event had grown,

My mom got reiki from someone; I do admit I felt sardine packed in the main room waiting, which so many reiki practioners stationed in there, I did not know where I could stand to wait. Another odd thing, not really under the event control, but still observed at the event, was the reiki person touched my mom, which seems odd. My mom later shared she was not expecting that as typically it is a no-touch thing; I guess it is a reminder to let people know you don’t want to be touched and not to assume things in the future.

I did enjoy the community acupuncture being indoors this time, with no sunlight challenging my eyes it was easier to relax.

Mayan Day Out

https://www.facebook.com/events/524639319456032/?ref=newsfeed

Location:

West Lachapell Street

Duration:

1 day, annual recurrence

Highlights:

• Fire Dancers

Cons:

• In a warehouse without air conditioning, on one of the hottest times of the year (July 25)
• Street parking only

Entry Fee

• $22.22 – $35, depending on when you buy and your age.

Vendor Info:

The sign-up email address is listed on the Facebook page. I won’t list it to not encourage email harvesting bots.

About:

I nearly went to this event as a vendor but the thing that stopped me was the whole parking situation. I was not sure if the general public would come out to a night event on a work-night, and the lack of air conditioning did not sound appealing either; at the time, the temperature was still in the 90 degrees Fahrenheit at night. I had noticed people not going to my MeetUp events because of the heat, so I was not so sure about this event. I also questioned if I would have the energy to break-down my booth at the end of the late night event.

Despite those questions, the nail in the coffin for me was parking. I was not going to risk my car’s safety for an event. Again, the risk of someone texting and driving and swiping or crashing head on into my parked car did not seem worth it. At most events, as a vendor I lose money or break even; very few of them to I make money.

The most notable and unique aspect of this event is certainly the fire spinners. I learned poi myself, and the person who taught me poi told me when he used to practice for commercial purposes, he had expensive overhead cost, like insurance and getting authorization from the local fire department for a fee. So, this event having fire spinners, it probably did merit the entry fee.

From the videos and photos I have seen, this event has a lot more action energy than the other events that I wrote about. It had a street/urban or carnival-ish vibe to it. I do appreciate the positive vibes of the organizer and wish him well. It takes a lot to start an event out of your own wallet.

Missing in Action Events

• The Holistic Fair – This was quiet a big monthly event by a lady named Trish, but after a personal loss, it seems the event has ceased to run.
• The Metaphysical Gathering – This was a smaller event that occurred monthly, but it seems the pandemic may have put the event on a permanent hiatus.