What’s Monster Market?
Monster Market is a Memphis-based community event and pop-up retail experience that magically appears in Memphis every October! Our spooky seasonal pop-up started in 2017 in a tiny one-room storefront on North Main— generously provided by the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Open on Main Initiative. I’ve been organizing this event for 8 years now (in some form or another) to give weird art and dark aesthetics a very welcome home in Memphis.
This isn’t a vendor market with booths and artists and awkward conversations— we’ve done the work of finding all the best stuff for you— and you get to browse it all in one big staged and styled store! We fill our shelves with the strangest art, apparel, and home decor we can find, all sourced directly from makers, artists, and small independent brands. There’s truly nothing else like this in Memphis!
A Strange Idea
Back in 2017, as I was getting serious with my personal brand Holtermonster and setting up at vendor markets around town, I felt out of place. Between the handcrafted wooden kitchen utensils and pastel watercolor prints that filled many local markets at the time, my drippy pizza monster stickers and vaguely Satanic t-shirts didn’t quite fit the vibe. It wasn’t that my audience didn’t exist— Memphis is full of quirky freaks who appreciate the same aesthetics I do!— but the events I was vending at felt too aesthetically broad to draw them in. I knew other creatives struggled to find a similar audience as well.
Truly, it was my partner Matthew who one evening innocently suggested that I organize my own market, with only the weird stuff. With my interests in event planning, gallery installation, and marketing, he really had no idea what he was setting into motion at the time— but I was instantly inspired. Visions of a freaky little oddities shop formed, stuffed to the gills with art and novelties, perfectly curated to appeal to the weirdos.
Home for Weirdos
Monster Market has become a haven for creativity, alternative art, and experimentation, providing an outlet for its strange makers and a destination for its appreciators. From crocheted demons to hand-painted Elvira fan art, and from bootleg sci-fi movie merch to Sivad-inspired candelabras, Monster Market carries all kinds of weird stuff you never knew you needed. Better yet though— it’s created a safe place for these themes to be celebrated, rather than awkwardly sprinkled into broader markets.
Many of our makers are repeat offenders— returning to shop year after year with a different collection of work each time. Monster Market encourages our makers to think of new work each season and to explore ideas, themes and styles they haven’t explored before:
- Babycreep, a big inspiration for Monster Market, debuted her now-iconic bloody Bride of Frankenstein lady head planters with us!
- Pretty Useful Co. is now 2 prints into a 3-part horror heroines poster series, each one premiering at Monster Market!
- Local heavyweight St. Francis Elevator Ride designs a brand new line of bootleg movie merch every year for Monster Market!
While the pop-up inspires some to branch out into darker territory, it’s also a welcoming dark cave for makers who are already firmly established there, like the bizarre art and fake cakes of Pastelware, the demonic ceramics of Enter the Grave, or the gothic Memphis-inspired apparel of Monolithic Press. We’re always on the hunt for new oddities, too!— opening up Applications every spring to find new makers to add to our ranks.
Our Best Year Yet!
Now coming up on our 8th year, Monster Market has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Our 2024 pop-up shop is open October 11-16th at the Medicine Factory in downtown Memphis, and will feature a gorgeous store styled with 2,000+ unique items from 111 makers and artists.
Our shop kicks off with our annual Opening Night party— your first chance to see/shop our full collection, with free snacks by Bain BBQ and Whisks of Doom, and a bar provided by Old Dominick and Wiseacre!
Monster Market 2024 also includes in-store events everyday!
Join us for:
- Sat 10/12: In-Store Board Game Demo by Rumors and Legends (think CLUE but with cryptids) with the game designer Rueben Brunson, 2-4p
- Sun 10/13: Wake & Bake pastry pop-up with Whisks of Doom, 11a-sell out
- Sun 10/13: Make-a-Monster Workshop with Five In One Social Club (option 1), 1-4p (Tickets required)
- Mon 10/14: Make-a-Monster Workshop with Five In One Social Club (option 2), 5-8p (Tickets required)
- Tue 10/15: Scarily Professional Happy Hour with AAF Memphis, 5:30-6:30p
- Tue 10/15: Twisted Terrors, soft pretzel pop-up by Whisks of Doom + Hellraiser (1987) screening, 7-9p
- Wed 10/16: Sorry, We’re Closing! Sale, all day