Bazaar Bizzare

Another year, another awesome Bizarre Bazaar.
I look forward to Christmas shopping at Bizarre Bazaar ever year.
85 craft vendors full the Cyclorama with handmade wares.
The vendors even include non-​profit organizations like Rosie’s Place and Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, so you feel even better buying gifts there and supporting women in need.
My favorite vendors this year included Egg-​A-​Go-​Go for adorable children tee shirts and cards, Little Hero Capes for thier cute kids costumes (see the picture posted to this Unilocal listing), Boston Comics Roundtable for their great selection of comics by local authors, Bearded Tales Of Woe for their cool «secret» books with storage space in side, Sweet Lydia’s for her delicious marshmallow s’mores, and PoPkO for the butterfly wing necklaces.
Toiluxe deserves an honorable mention for making me laugh every year.
This year I read the «Seven Super Tips for Bizarre Bazaar Shopers» (
) and appreciated the reminder to bring a reusable bag. I filled the bag with lots of goodies, gifts for the holidays, and some for myself.
I highly recommend purchasing early bird tickets to shop with only 100 shoppers, compared to the thousands of shoppers who stream in when the doors open to general admission. It’s worth the $ 10’s to be able to browse with more elbow room, and be able to chat with vendors. I shopped from 11 – 12:30 and was able to see every vendors table.
I paid in cash for every purchase and felt good doing my part for the Unilocal Shops Local Pledge.

I went to the Bazaar Bizzare today. The line was long and for the first hour it was a madhouse. However, I did find a gift for the person on my list who is very hard to shop for. Overall I spent about 120 bucks on six different items, including a «What Would Tom Waits Do?» tee shirt. I would come next year, though I would have come earlier. If you have to buy gifts for the hip, artsy, or stylish you should check out the Bizaar Bizzare.

So before this year I would have definitely given BB five stars. I look forward to it every year and previously, counted on finding all my holiday gifts there.
However, I’ve got to say I was kind of disappointed this year — it was just «eh». Normally I walk away having spent a fair bit, but this year I spent a grand total of $ 10. I think the main reason was that although it was in a larger space, there were way more people and almost too many vendors. I thought there was great stuff, but there was just so much I felt totally overwhelmed and stressed out.
That said, Mr. Puppovich’s Uncommon Delights had the BEST veggie burger I have ever had! The texture and flavor was just amazing. If all vegetarian options tasted this great I think I could give up meat in a second.

Eh, I was really not a fan. I waited for about 25 minutes in the cold and snow to pay my $ 1 to get in. The only thing that made the wait somewhat more tolerable was that some cute members of the Derby Dames were running around along the line in their fishnets and boas handing out schedules and nice magnets. When I first got inside it was a bit crowded but not unbearably so. I managed to take a look at 75% of the stuff before getting a bit worn out and having to retire to the food area and grab a chocolate chip cookie. Now, that chocolate chip cookie really rocked. And seeing as it was the only thing there I was remotely interested in buying, really rocked. Yum yum. After resting for a bit with my cookie, I proceeded to check out the remaining 25% of stuff. I was really not impressed. I was hoping that more of the vendors from the South End Open Market were going to be here. In particular, I was really hoping that my favorite glass artisan who makes the most awesome glass jewelry would be here, but helas. There were a few South End Open Market people, but not my favorites. Most of the jewelry was so insanely overpriced. It kind of made me think that the vendors raided their grandmas’ old jewelry boxes and bottles o’ buttons, put them on some chains or made them «funky» with some random paint or plastic skulls and then christened them as the hipest and priced them at $ 50 a piece. Most of the stuff seemed not worth the price to me. Oh, and aside from the chocolate chip cookie, the only other thing I really enjoyed was the dude with the porn magnets. Those brough a smile to my day. I eventually had to leave after about two and a half hours since I was starting to have an anxiety attack from the mass of people. Way too crowded! So all told, my experiene at Bazaar Bizzare resulted in
1 Cool Derby Dames Magnet (free!)
1 Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie ($ 2)
5 Minutes of smiling while enjoying gay porn on magnets
1 impending anxiety attack
not sure this was quite worth the $ 1 admission.

Last Sunday was my first time patronizing Bazaar Bizarre. I am always down for browsing a hip craft fair for one-​of-​a-​kind items, and was on the lookout for some jewelry to add to my practically nonexistent collection.
Like others have noted, the line was insane – my friends and I got there around 12:30 and waited for 45 minutes to get in. The space itself was not great either – the room was completely packed, and it was often hard to get close enough to the vendor tables to ask questions and get a really good look at what they were selling.
From what I did manage to see, I personally found the wares to be pretty hit and miss. Don’t get me wrong, the good was generally great – cute vintage headbands, blank notebooks recycled from old hardcover books, and lots of really unique jewelry (I’m wearing the black bumblebee earrings I scored for $ 5 as I type). Many of the items, however, though interesting, had kind of a WTF factor, and were seriously overpriced, even taking into account labor and the costs of running an independent business.
I heard through the grapevine that, for $ 10, you could shop «in private» for an hour before the bazaar opened at noon. Usually I find those kinds of promotions to be pretty silly, but if I go next year, I think I might just do this to avoid the crowds and have more time to talk to the vendors.

Bizarre Bazaar? Bazzar Bizarrrrrre!!! Bazarr Bizaar?! I can’t fucking get it right!!!
Unilocal Search: Do you mean… Bazaar Bizzare?
YES! Holy big baby Jesus, Bazaar Bizzare has made me realize I can’t spell. From now on, I’m calling it BB.
If you like handmade, kooky and unique items, this place is for you! I never went when it was in Cyclorama, but I kept hearing that the Castle is much bigger, and that is scary, seeing as this place was PACKED to the gills with people getting their Christmas shopping on.
There are so many unique artists here that if I wanted to spend time at each individual vendor it would take me all day. That being said, I still made off with some awesome finds:
Fishcakes — I got an «I Knit» magnet and Joe got an «I take pictures» magnet, for $ 8.00 which sounds a lot for a magnet, but they were AWESOME! I’m probably going to buy more to add to our budding magnet collecgtion
Woolarina — They were offering $ 2.00 off yarn skeins with their coupon, and how can I say no?! Needless to say I will be rocking some awesome fingerless mittens in the near future
Applecart — I got an awesome unique purse for $ 10!!! I love it and I’m going to use it forevermore
I desperately wanted the Knitting takes balls t-​shirt from
, but Joe wouldn’t let me :(
There were so many talented vendors (and yummy vendors) that I wish I could have spent all day there. But the impending suffocation would have gotten to me.
And while the line looked horrendous, in reality it only took us about 20 minutes to get in!
Tip: Move it to Hynes Convention Center, sure we might have to pay more to get it, but it’s worth it for some breathing room and awesome crafts!

Minus one star for the 1-​hr wait and horrendous music, and a few snobbish vendors.
the 1-​hr wait (throughout the day!!!) could be eliminated if they got a bigger space .This year it was held at the castle at Park Plaza @ 101 Arlington St. (attached to smith and wollensky) and/​or offered this fair for more than just one day as clearly the demand would support this!
It wasn’t as bizarre as it could have been but it was cool.
4 stars for the 147 out of 148 total excellent vendors and mr. puppoviche’s odd beverages and uncommon delights (food vendors from vermont). yummy vggie chili w/​cornbread, veggie burgers & organic apple cider.
i scored some jewelry. my friend did too. lots of good quality items from vendors near and far.
(from san francisco, she uses real fruit and food in her pieces)
(from providence, cute necklaces, earrings etc, not totally my style but they look cute on my friend and they were fun to look at)
makes journals out of old books etc. COOL!
metalworks and interesting metal objects
really nice jewelry!!!
jewelry, xmas ornaments etc made of tree circles/​rings.
rosie’s place, which has run programs for homeless women since 1974 has the Women’s Craft Cooperative! They make some cool jewelry. The boutique is open mon-​fri 10−5pm @ 47 Thorndike St Boston, Ma 617.442.9322 ext 262

The line to get in was longer than the line I stood in to vote this year, but it moved quickly and I only waited a total of probably 15 minutes. Once I got in… DAMN. That place was as crowded as a livestock auction. There were tons of artists’ booths, and it was like
come to life, but I could barely get close enough to the tables to look at the pretty, sparkly things that caught my eye from so far away.
There really were tons of unique and handmade objects in a wide range of prices. A lot of silkscreened shirts, jewelry, and bags and homegoods made from cute, bright, «vintage-​y» fabrics. I could have bought a ton of stuff if I weren’t limited by a strict budget this year. Also if it were possible to squeeze my way through the virtual wall of people and their chunky knit scarves, hornrimmed glasses and skull-​and-​crossbones hoodies to get to the tables and make a purchase.
Also, there appeared to be only one way (literally, there was one door) to get in or out of the place, and the looong rows of tables were arranged so that some aisles were a dead end. Meaning the throngs of us winter-​coat wearing, purse-​and-​backpack toting shoppers had to somehow figure out how to stop and turn completely around to go back the way we came, all the while hoping that there might be an empty spot somewhere on the way to stop and breathe some fresh oxygen.
It’s too bad that such a great event is hampered by poor planning. They needed a MUCH larger space and way better crowd control. It really did keep me from staying longer and possibly making a purchase. So, only three stars for the Bazaar Bizzare.

I’ve been going to Boston Bazaar Bizarre for quite a few years now, and it seems to keep getting more and more crowded. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, as it clearly means that there are more and more people interested in buying unusual, cool handmade items by local craftspeople. But it seems that they can’t find a space big enough to support all of the people who want to visit!
Someone in a previous review mentioned that they should consider running BB for more than one day, and I think that’s probably the best solution.
Honestly, if it is only one day next year, I think I’ll probably skip the whole thing and opt to visit Craftland in Providence instead. A lot of the vendors at BB also show at Craftland, which goes on for the whole month of December; at least when you go there, you know you can actually get close enough to get a good luck at the wares.

Glad we took the Unilocal advice and showed up early. While, some people opted to stand in line outside Cyclorama at ten past 11, after an unsuccessful search for street parking we begrudging found an over-​priced garage, and opted to stay warm and grab a coffee.
Although the line freaked me out at first, we jumped in once it started moving and were inside in minutes.
The entire bazaar shopping experience took less than 2 hours. A cool print for my boyfriend’s sister, half a dozen ice cream cone-​shaped dog treats, a shiny new skull and crossbones collar for our vicious Golden Retriever, a unique floppy disk/​art piece for an office grab, and an early Christmas gift splurge for me — a Moby messenger bag from the talented sisters at Pear (which I now worship as a god).
I was feeling somewhat claustrophobic after an hour or so. Glad we checked out all the sellers on the website in advance and devised somewhat of a plan, otherwise the scene inside may have been even more overwhelming.
A lot of vendors items were on the pricey side (i.e. the $ 60 apple head plush doll that I had to talk myself out of buying before we even got there — luckily, it was not available). But, avoiding the monotony of mass production and the mall was completely worth it.

same old same old. totebags? check. comic book-​y looking prints for sale? check. faux retro home decorations? check. i cannot believe the sheer amount of people lining up around the block and up clarendon street for this crap!
i tried to go last year but the line was too long. but THIS year since i moved across the street i decided i was going to make it happen and got in line (already around the corner on clarendon) at 11:45. i was looking for some artwork and i was disappointed that there wasn’t much of that. it was just a lot of super crafty stuff. i appreciate the hard work people put into stuff but it felt like every table was selling the same thing! which is nice to look at and all, but i really don’t understand why there was such a massive amount of people waiting in line for it. a lot of it was the same stuff (and the same vendors) that were at the south end open market on sundays this summer. how many earrings made out of recycled materials does one girl need?
HOWEVER i will admit it was worth it to get my bearded boyfriend a shirt that said beards not bombs and had a picture of guys with handlebar mustaches. an extra star for that!

The Bazaar Bizarre smelled a lot better than its Portland, OR equivalent (The Handmade Bazaar). I, for one, am very glad our hipsters bathe more regularly than those on the West Coast.
The venu was great, and despite being crowded, was mostly navigable (except for the strollers. gah, why?) once you got in. I got there at prime line-​waiting time, but still only waited like 20 minutes to get in. It was well-​organized, and only a buck to get in! Sweet!
Despite smelling better than Portland, the crafts just weren’t as good. I love silkscreened birds/​cassette tapes as much as the next guy, but I was really hoping for a little more variety than what I got here. I wanted to get a good chunk of my holiday shopping done at the BB, but left empty-​handed. Don’t get me wrong, some booths were superb and reasonably priced. I took a few business cards and might yet purchase from them. There was one metalworker with unique kitchen goods (measuring spoons, etc.) that I’ll definitely buy from once payday rolls around, and a few who had great stuff that just wasn’t right for the people I have to buy for. Some things were perfect but too expensive. (My gf would die for that cute handbag! Oh, it’s $ 55? for fabric sewn together? I should learn to sew.) In hindsight, I should’ve gotten some holiday cards, there plenty of fun/​cute/​well made ones.
Essentially, it was fun to browse/​people-​watch and I’ll definitely go next year, but it didn’t really rock my socks. 3 and a half stars, rounded up because that’s how you round fractions.

«Not your grandma’s craft fair»?
How do you know that? Who are you to say that my grandmother wouldn’t be enamored by frowning pieces of toast? I for one, can say that she’d probably have been very confused, God rest her soul.
Friends were in town for the weekend, and while the boys were at the Patriots game, I took us out on a jaunt around Boston. When we arrived at Cyclorama, there was already a line stretching to the curb, but have no fear! We were inside within 10 mins and we entered the swarming mob of indie youth. Shame on us for taking a traditional approach to viewing the booths, doing the right to left as if we were grocery shopping. The crowd got to be a bit overwhelming while I stood on tiptoe to try and get a look at some of the wares. Lot of common themes floating around, monochromatic prints, poorly made overpriced jewelry, and goofy hats that I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in.