Embrace the weird at Oddities & Curiosities Expo
If something’s weird, then it probably fits in at the Oddities & Curiosities Expo.
The traveling showcase for “all things strange, unusual and bizarre” stops in Las Vegas from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at The Expo at World Market Center.
The Oddities & Curiosities Expo hosts “oddities vendors and dark artists from all over the country,” said Michelle Cozzaglio, co-owner of the expo with her husband, Tony.
Exhibits include original art, antiques, jewelry and clothing, as well as more macabre items such as preserved specimens and taxidermy. One photo from a previous event shows what appears to be a preserved animal dressed in clothes and holding a doll.
The event also includes sideshow performers such as sword swallowers and the Museum of Marvelous Mutations, billed as “the World’s Largest Traveling Freak Show.”
General admission tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Children 12 and under get in free.
“We are an all-ages event BUT we always (say) parental discretion is advised,” Cozzaglio said via email.
The Museum of Marvelous Mutations costs an extra $7. There is also a taxidermy class for a two-headed duckling that costs $235 and includes a ticket to the expo. The class is open to all skill levels and lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The expo began in 2017 in the Cozzaglios’ hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has steadily grown with stops across the country, she said. They held two events in 2017, eight in 2018 and 16 in 2019 and were scheduled to have 26 in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, she said.
The expo returned for 20 stops in 2021, and there are 25 this year, Cozzaglio said. This is the expo’s second year in Las Vegas.
“We definitely plan to return again in 2023, too,” she said.
Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.
