WHY I'M PRESENTING A ‘MIDSUMMER FAERIE BALL’ ( ONCE AGAIN!)
Hello friends,
I'm heading back to Australia in just a few weeks for a summertime tour — Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and surrounds — and I'm super excited to once again be presenting a Midsummer Faerie Ball in Melbourne on the Summer Solstice, December 20th. The Faerie Ball is co-presented with my dear friends Nicholas and Naomi from Dandelion Wine — one of my absolute favourite Aussie bands. It’s a joyful afternoon, kid-friendly event!
And I say “once again” because I’ve been presenting Midsummer Faerie Balls in Melbourne since the early 2000s — often teaming up with my magical, mystical co-creators Dandelion Wine. Here’s an old poster I found from our 2011 Faerie Ball!
But my journey with the faerie world goes back far earlier than that. When I was a kid, I was utterly obsessed with fairies / faeries (I think both spellings are fine).
I was a very trippy, weird, out-there child, happily slipping into trance states simply by being in Nature. I had a favourite tree when I was about five. My Mum would wrap tinsel around a branch at my request, and I’d climb up there in a makeshift tutu, chatting with the fae for hours.
To me, the faerie world was — and still is — absolutely real. As a child I could easily sense them: flickers of light at the edge of vision, that subtle shimmer of presence, and often, their appearances in my dreams.
I think I was about 4 years old (maybe 5) when the thing that I most wanted in the whole wide world for my birthday was a book about fairies, My Mum - always so good at nurturing our imaginations - gifted me two life changing books for that birthday. The first was Flower Fairies of the Garden, by Cicely Mary Barker. I grabbed it from my bookshelf of treasures to take this photo today:
I absolutely adored it, both the lovely pictures, and the beautiful poems that my Mum would read me.
Now, check out the inside cover! I decided to add my own fairy drawings to the book! . These are the only drawings I have from my childhood, so they are extra precious.
Back then (1970 or ’71), books about faeries were hard to come by. So the second book Mum gave me was a book of poetry: A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, which happened to include a few dreamy, otherworldly fairy illustrations.
But it was the poems that really entranced me — the rhythm, the rhyme, the portal they opened. I still remember many of them by heart. This one could send me straight to Fairyland:
Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.
Then, in 1978 — when I was twelve — the incredible book Faeries by Brian Froud was released. Again, my dear Mum gifted it to me. I was enraptured. These weren’t just pretty flower fairies. These beings were strange, unsettling, beautiful, terrible, enchanting — and so akin to the beings I met in my dreams. Through folklore, myth and magic, I learned the fae were part of a vast cultural tapestry. And in Brian Froud, I found an adult who believed in them too.
Fast-forward to adulthood. Through my Witchcraft path, I learned that the beings I had always called fairies could also be understood as Elementals, Nature Spirits, guides. My childhood sense that everything in Nature was alive and filled with Spirit — which I interpreted as faerie — was given a name: Animism. Seen and unseen, all part of the same living magic.
So yes — as a grown-up, I’ve never had a problem being out and proud as a lover of Faeries! Here’s a promo shot from one of my early Faerie Balls — around 2003. The wings are straight from the Brian Froud book, but the swirls and doodles are all mine.
And in 2004, I released an album called Deep Within a Faerie Forest, a collaboration with California-based musician Gary Stadler. I always laugh because when Gary asked if I’d like to collaborate on a faerie album, I replied, “only if it’s dark, scary faeries of the forest.” It ended up being my lightest album — and his darkest!
If you'd like to have a listen, you can find it here on my Bandcamp page:
So yeah, it feels perfectly natural for me to be honouring the Fae with a Midsummer Faerie Ball! It's going to be so much fun, and a lovely way to honour the turning of the Wheel, and Southern Hemisphere Midsummer!
For those of you in the Melbourne area, here's that info again:
MIDSUMMER FAERIE BALL WITH DANDELION WINE
SATURDAY DECEMBER 20TH
4PM - 8PM
ADULTS $45 / KIDS 17 AND UNDER $15 / KIDS UNDER 5 - FREE
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!
AUSSIE TOUR - CLICK LINKS FOR TIX AND INFO
SYDNEY: THUR DEC 11TH - @ GASOLINE PONY , MARRICKVILLE
BERRY, NSW: FRIDAY DEC 12TH - PICNIC HOUSE CONCERT
CANBERRA: SAT DEC 13TH - 3PM, SMITH'S ALTERNATIVE
EUROA, VIC: SUN DEC 14TH - ‘THE NORTHY’ (with a VERY special secret local guest opening for me!!!)
MELBOURNE: SAT DEC 20TH MIDSUMMER FAERIE BALL @SOOKI LOUNGE
CRESWICK, VIC: SAT JAN 3 - Tix coming soon
MELBOURNE: SAT JAN 10TH @ Bar 303, Northcote. Tix coming soon
MAGIC MONDAY VIDEOS – EVERY MONDAY ON MY PATREON!
Can’t make it to my Aussie shows? Fear not. I’m always sharing magic online through my Patreon portal. Every week I post a brand new Magic Monday video with Tarot, stories, lunar wisdom, and music — available exclusively to my paid Patreon members (you can join for just $5 USD a month).
And here’s something special — every Full Moon, I now offer a FREE Full Moon Magic concert to my entire Patreon community, including those on the free tier. It’s my way of nurturing this lovely circle of support.
You can explore my Patreon and join the community here: JOIN MY PATREON.
I’d love to welcome you in.
FIND MY MUSIC ONLINE
You can explore my full catalogue on all major streaming platforms — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more — but the very best and most supportive place to purchase my music is BANDCAMP. That’s where you’ll find my full discography, bonus tracks, and the most direct way to support my work.
Ok friends, I hope that you enjoyed our journey through fairyland together! I hope I get to see lots of my Aussie friends and fans on this upcming tour, and many more of you on my Patreon portal.
With Love and Magic
Wendy