Across the coast of NSW this week, printers are humming, ink is drying, work copiers are secretly being utilised, and staples are not quite landing evenly until after the third try and a bunch of swearing, as zine-makers from all over (within a reasonable driving distance) get ready to converge on Wollongong Town Hall this Saturday for the Strange Folds Zine Fair.
What’s a zine, you may ask? Derived from the end of the word ‘magazine’ (pronounced ‘zeen’), zines are independently made, small-circulation booklets characterised by their simple design; usually folded and stapled paper. They’ve existed since the 1920s, allowing communities to share stories, poetry, art, social commentary, fandom content and more at almost no cost.
These days, zine fairs (events where people gather to sell and swap their zines) are getting more popular each year in Australia. The Strange Folds Zine Fair was started three years ago in Coledale by myself (Adara) and Lore from Baby Teeth Journal, when we realised there was literally nothing stopping us from doing so. This year, the fair is smack bang in the centre of Wollongong, taking over both the Town Hall and the Music Lounge, with over 60 independent zine-makers spreading their stuff across tables for buying, swapping, reading and chatting.
There really is something for everyone at a zine fair – in my collection of zines I have some as small as a matchbook, some digitally illustrated, some hand-collaged and photo-copied. I have zines about activism and politics, poetry and comedy, gardening guides, tattoo ideas, how dateable Halloween monsters would be, instructions on how to become friends with fish, lists of fan fiction tags and drag names, drawings of dinosaurs wearing hats, and much more than I can reasonably list.
Zines cost as little as a dollar, and entry to the zine fair is free. There will also be free zine-making activities and workshops all day, run by Jess from L.I.M.P. Mag who joined the Strange Folds team this year. You can try your hand at making your very own zine – all you need is a single sheet of paper to start! There’s even a DIY Zine Competition.
The free fair is on this weekend, Saturday, 6 September from 10am to 3pm at Wollongong Town Hall. For more information, visit Merrigong's website
About the writer
Adara Enthaler is a spoken word poet and community arts organiser living and working on Dharawal land in Wollongong. She has worked in the literary arts for over a decade, is the host of Enough Said Poetry Slam, co-organiser of the Strange Folds Zine Fair, co-founder of Society City, and works as an MC and spoken word poet. She has featured at festivals and poetry slams across NSW, and her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies from Baby Teeth Journal and Heroines Festival, as well as her poetry zines Equidistant (2018) and Crowdsourced Poems (2022).
