Event
Glitter instead of graveyard chill: why Paranormal Festival is a must
17 October 2026 · 5 min read
On 8 May 2027 Paranormal Festival fills the exhibition hall at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm with investigators, practising witches, astrologers, ufologists and mediums. It is run by DSIF, a non-profit society tired of the paranormal always being about darkness and horror. On Robert and Carin Taxing, the bazaar, the large séances and the pop-up exhibition, and why we think you should go.
Most gatherings devoted to the unexplained pick a lane. The ufologists have their meet-ups, the ghost hunters have theirs, and anyone who wants to learn tarot goes somewhere else entirely. Paranormal Festival refuses to choose.
On Saturday 8 May 2027 the festival fills the main exhibition hall at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm with investigators, practising witches, astrologers, ufologists and mediums. One full day, under one roof, with the water of Riddarfjärden just outside the windows.
”A glitter-filled celebration with investigators, practising witches, astrologers, ufologists and mediums. Here you will be able to dance like the fae, have your future read and take part in mysterious stories from every corner of the country.”
And then the line that sums up the whole project:
”Here, paranormal is actually completely normal.”
The Society for That Which Does Not Exist
The festival is run by DSIF, Föreningen för Det Som Inte Finns, which translates as the Society for That Which Does Not Exist. It is a non-profit association that investigates and explores the unexplained together, from strange happenings at home to phenomena in the sky.
It was founded a few years ago by Robert and Carin Taxing, two people with a long-standing genuine interest in the subject. One detail in their own introduction says a good deal about the tone of the whole society: they have watched all eleven seasons of The X-Files several times over.
They have grown since. Together they have investigated, explored and exhibited at fairs, and somewhere along the way a new idea began to form. What if you could gather even more of that world in one place?
”Everything we do is run non-profit and without any commercial motive, and Paranormal Festival is no exception.”
That is worth pausing on. Nobody makes money from you turning up.
Why a whole festival?
The organisers ask the question themselves, and the answer is unusually candid. There are already excellent fairs and meeting places for parts of the paranormal world. They simply became curious about what would happen if those worlds were mixed together further.
A festival where ufology meets astrology, ghost hunting meets spirit contact, and cryptozoology shares the floor with tarot, talks, private sittings, societies and experiences. A place where both the committed enthusiast and the person who mostly thinks ”hmm, I wonder…” can feel at home.
But the strongest argument is about register. The image of the paranormal almost always gets stuck in darkness and horror, and that image shuts out more people than it invites in.
”We do enjoy a cold cellar as much as the next ghost hunter, but to us the paranormal is also curiosity, community, the joy of discovery, glitter, warmth and a good deal of magic.”
Paranormal Basar
The heart of the festival is the bazaar, a living marketplace where you meet everyone from dream interpreters and tarot readers to science-hungry ufologists.
Need more crystals? Or a book to go deeper into mythological beings? They are here. You can also talk to different interest groups, discover new perspectives, or book a private sitting on the spot.
This is the part we expect to surprise people most. An exhibition hall where twenty different ways of approaching the same questions stand side by side is a very different experience from twenty exhibitors who already agree with each other.
Paranormal Exhibition
For the festival’s pop-up exhibition the organisers have gathered strange objects and their equally strange stories.
It is designed as an interactive experience where you follow the traces of the unexplained through history, and perhaps start wondering yourself what is actually possible.
Paranormal Sessions
The stage programme is the festival at full scale. Across the day, stories, knowledge and experiences gather on stage, from workshops and talks to panels, large séances and live appearances by popular podcasts.
The organisers’ own examples of where you might end up: learning more about Bigfoot, making contact with the spirit world, or finding out how a paranormal investigation actually works.
The names on the bill have not been announced yet.
Münchenbryggeriet, with the water outside
The venue deserves a line of its own. Münchenbryggeriet sits on the northern edge of Södermalm, in the brick buildings of the old brewery from the late nineteenth century, its name still set into the facade.
The festival takes over the main exhibition hall. Outside lies Riddarfjärden, and across the water the City Hall and the old town. It is hard to imagine a more Stockholm setting for a day about things that should not exist.
Make a day of it
From Münchenbryggeriet it is a short walk across the water to Gamla stan, where two of the most visited places on our map sit a few blocks apart.
If you are travelling in, it is perfectly possible to spend the morning on the cobblestones of the Stockholm Bloodbath and the afternoon in a hall full of tarot readers.
Why we think this one is a must
We recommend a lot of things, but this is one of the few days we would book ourselves without hesitating. Three reasons.
The first is the breadth. Nobody else puts the entire field in one room. Normally you have to choose your lane before you leave the house, which means you never happen to walk past something you did not know you were interested in.
The second is that it is non-profit. There is no company behind it, no upsell to a more expensive package, nobody who needs you to buy something for the day to balance. You can hear it in the way they write about their own festival.
The third is the tone. This is an event you can bring someone to who has never cared about the subject, without it turning uncomfortable. Glitter, fae dancing and a large séance in the same building is a far more welcoming way in than a cold cellar at two in the morning.
One honest caveat. Tickets have not gone on sale yet and the programme is not finalised. What you can do right now is put the date in your calendar and keep an eye on the organiser’s site.
Want to be on the other side of the table?
The organisers are looking for exhibitors, and they put the goal plainly: to gather everyone sailing under the paranormal flag.
For an exhibitor the festival is a chance to meet like-minded people, share what you know and reach people who have not yet found their way into this world. Applications go through the festival site, and questions are welcome at [email protected].
What we know so far
Date: Saturday 8 May 2027. Venue: Münchenbryggeriet on Södermalm in Stockholm. Format: a full day of bazaar, exhibition and stage programme. Organiser: DSIF, Föreningen för Det Som Inte Finns.
Tickets are not on sale as this is written. The organisers say they are coming soon, and all current information is on the festival’s own site.
See you in the hall.
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