March 18, 2024

World Oddities Expo to bring 'peculiar paradise' to Philly next month

The traveling festival features tattoo artists, performers and vendors selling macabre art and home decor. It stops at the convention center on April 27.

By Kristin Hunt
PhillyVoice Staff

@worldodditiesexpo/Facebook

Small businesses will hawk curios at the World Oddities Expo during its stop at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Saturday, April 27.

The sideshow is coming to town for a one-day-only event in April featuring a marketplace of curios and classes on butterfly pinning.

The World Oddities Expo arrives in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 27. The traveling festival, which bills itself as a "peculiar paradise where weird thrives," will take over the Pennsylvania Convention Center from noon to 8 p.m.

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Visitors can shop for taxidermy, jewelry, home decor and macabre art pieces or get some fresh ink at the pop-up tattoo parlor run by Villain Arts. The expo also will offer live burlesque and musical entertainment, though the line-up of performers has not been announced. Recent acts have included sword swallowers and trapeze artists.

General admission starts at $20. For additional fees, guests can learn how to taxidermy a rat, pin and mount butterflies or create hair art that harkens back to the Victorian era.