I returned to the rift between realms for Goblin Market: Goblins in Space, hosted by Time Travel Events! The theme was voted upon by the goblins of yesteryear, and I was curious to see how they’d curate a sci-fi event.
Applications
With my satisfactory sales performance at Goblin Market 2025, I kept an eye out for their 2026 applications on their social media. Time Travel Events opened their applications in the fall, I applied, and got my acceptance in early October. However, I got mixed up on when the payment deadline was and ending up missing it! ovo;;; The horror!
Once I realized my mistake I emailed Time Travel Events, apologizing for missing the deadline on accident and asking to confirm if I’d forfeited my booth. Suzanne got back to me, letting me know that if there was still a spot open after the second round of acceptances then I could be pay my table fee and be back in the market. Come December, I received another acceptance for the Goblin Market and paid the $100 fee on time! Whew!
I heard from them again in mid March via email about our event schedule, load-in, load-out, and other details. They shared social media graphics that we were welcome to post. This is when I learned that the outdoor tent would not be used for vendors this year, hooray! While our vendor map wouldn’t be revealed to us until the day of the market, at least I was assured my booth would be indoors where the main action was. I was curious to compare my sales with last year to see if the tent placement did have an effect or not.
As we got closer to Goblin Market, Time Travel Events regularly posted shoutouts to their vendors, performers, and other guests on their own socials.
Load-In
Load-in started at 12 PM, so I rolled up around 2 PM. The IAM Local event hall is easily accessible from the parking lot, so it was no hassle at all to do multiple wagon trips. Time Travel Events didn’t share their vendor map before the event, so they had a list of vendor names and table spots on the wall. I was lucky and found a staff member right as I rolled in and she lead me to my table in the far aisle facing away from the entrance.
Since Time Travel Events provides 8 foot tables, I decided this would be good practice for Animazement which does the same. Though it did have me wondering throughout the night if a Z-layout would’ve been a better choice for my allotted 10×10 feet. I tried out a new adjustable width photo stand for my backdrop so it did take me longer to set up than my old tripods. I’ll need more practice to get up to speed, but I enjoyed how this newer stand had a less obtrusive feet, so it’s harder to trip on. I also finally got to hang up my homemade paper dragon! Overall, I was pretty happy with how I managed the 8 foot space and it allowed me to see improvements I could make by May.
As I was setting up staff came by to share our wi-fi password for the event to help with POS transactions, which is super great since I missed out on that the last couple events. They usually hid it away by the time I was finish setting up and I didn’t want to be a bother ^__^;
Vendor dinner was served at 5 PM: ham and chicken sandwiches, vegetable wraps, pasta salad, cookies, and an assortment of chips and soda. Time Travel Events are the only event organizers I’ve worked with who provide food for their vendors within the booth price, and I really appreciate them for that!
The stage performers also did their sound check while we were setting up. At one point our MC introduced herself and let us know that if we vendors needed anything to please feel free to find her or a staff member.
The Goblin Market
Just before 6 PM our MC let us know we’d be opening the doors. As the crowd trickled in, I noticed some of them seemed to be wearing Goblins in Space enamel pins, which were available exclusively for early bird tickets!
One thing I enjoy about the Goblin Market is the whimsical atmosphere they’re able to curate. Lots of people went in on the space theme and dressed in alien cosplays and original outfits. I wish I’d taken more photos. Time Travel events also hires professional costumers as goblins to entertain shoppers in the aisles. They even put on a couple of parades! The live performances on the main stage also added to the atmosphere. There were a few different acts who’d switch out throughout the night, so that each one went on at least twice.
And of course, one of the signature activities of the Goblin Market is trinket trading! This year I was ready with my pink cauldron of origami snakes. Similar to trick-or-treating, I observed this allowed for my table to have a secondary draw for visitors. My origami snakes got a lot of compliments and I asked people to drop their offered trinkets into the cauldron as well. It was interesting to see which trinkets came and went, though any that I took a particular liking to I kept in the back, heh heh.
Overall the crowd was composed of nerdy types who’d enjoy costumed events. I imagine most of them visited the Georgia Renaissance Faire or Dragon Con. Funny enough, I didn’t get many “I just saw you at Marietta the Gathering” comments, probably since they were further apart this year, haha. Since it is a 16+ event there weren’t any small children amongst our goblins. I still saw a range of ages: teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged folks. Our vendor space got busy at times, but I wouldn’t say it ever quite reached packed. Now that I’ve done a couple of Goblin Markets, I’d say they’re good medium-sized markets for the greater Atlanta Area and the ones who did attend are super into the niche theme.
My sales were busiest between 7 to 9 PM, with all my item categories performing well across the board. I even ran out of more Tubular shirt sizes, and without my clothing rack too! Ahhhh, I may have to bench them until I can restock them. There was a steep sales drop off towards the second half of the market, similar to last year, which I think is normal since it is a ticketed event in a venue that wouldn’t draw much foot-traffic on its own.
Since The Amazing Digital Circus came out with a new episode the week before, I was inspired to make a bunch of new buttons! Enough that I’d had to bring out a new bin to make room for them all. Seems other TADC fans were too excited since they were the button bestsellers.
One of my favorite moments, was when a couple of previous customers came by and let me know they read my zines and complemented my writing! I was so touched! And it makes me happy to hear when others find my writing to be helpful. I’m working on a couple of drafts for some new zines this year, about advocating in-person at the state capitol, so stay tuned~!
Bad
Dear readers, I do not enjoy broadcasting distaste for my fellow creatives on the Internet, so please understand it does not bring me joy to document the experience I’m about to describe. That night at the Goblins in Space Goblin Market of 2026, I’ve heard the worst music of my life. It has usurped the previous 15 year champion, an improv jazz that somehow didn’t have rhythm. I suppose I shouldn’t have taken for granted that they had the decency to not scratch metal on metal.
I can only describe the performance as evil. Inhuman. I sincerely believe the sonic attack we endured could have only been formed of pure malice.
I’ve heard construction sites with more rhythm. I’ve heard screaming children with more tone. A cacophonous highway to migraine hell worthy of its own Satanic Panic.
I don’t know if it was five, ten, forty five minutes… My booth was near the stage but facing away and obscured by draped dividers, so I could not see how these metallic sounds were being produced. Was it a grater shredding knives? A garbage disposal spinning hammers? How is it even possible to play percussion without a beat?!?
I had ear plugs in, as part of my essential market kit, but even they couldn’t save me. By 9 PM I wrote my group chat “this musician is going to kill me. Good bye, noisy world.” Both vendors and customers complained openly throughout the set. When it was finally done I heard the MC say “wow, he really brought everything and the kitchen sink on stage” …. was that literal? Was there actually a sink?
Our DJ returned to close out the evening and was a much welcome reprieve. When my friend, Thomas, came by later to help his partner pack up, he mentioned three separate people told him on his way in that they were thinking of storming the stage. One of them was me.
Load-Out
By the end of the night I’d gotten a load of good trinkets in my cauldron: a cat figurine, a clip-on hair bow, two crocheted pieces, a bag of chai tea, an alien fidget toy, cool beads, and a few pinback buttons to name a few. It’s occurred to me I probably could add some of my own discontinued button stragglers to my trinket trade cauldron next time.
As mentioned before, sales slowed down during the second half of the Goblin Market. I was a little surprised that I was trending to make just about the same amount of revenue as last year, about four times the booth fee. Very curious to me because I was certain being in a darker location that eventually became very cold negatively affected traffic. However, in my experience usually the smaller a venue is, the less important your individual booth placement is as well, since shoppers are more likely to cover the entire surface area. So… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still, four times my booth fee is my quota for a satisfactory market, so I can’t complain. While I’ve heard other vendors describe their sales at the Goblin Market to be gangbusters, maybe the audience just doesn’t quite mesh for me to reach those kinds of numbers. I did just do my taxes earlier this week though, and it’s really given me appreciation for well-run markets that put me in the black.
With the slower traffic I did see a few vendors pack up a little early. I stuck it out though since I wasn’t in a rush to travel and I’m glad I did, a couple of last minute sales put my numbers just above 2025’s. Our goblin visitors were very polite and vacated the hall so that we vendors could close up shop. Similar to load-in, loading out was pretty simple since my car was parked near the entrance.
Billie’s Vendor Review
| Foot Traffic | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Attendee Vibes | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Restrooms | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pokémon GO | My GPS was MIA |
| Organization | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Time Travel Events are some of the kindest organizers I’ve met in the greater Atlanta area. We may not have the same tastes in music, but I appreciate their attention to detail and efforts to provide a good experience on both the vendor and attendee side. I’d recommend checking out their established shows if you’re local vendor who can fit their event themes, maybe even if you’re within Georgia. While their audience is devoted, I suspect they may not be large enough to support out-of-state vendors for now.
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