Green River Community College’s Lindbloom Center came to life at the sixth annual Spring Fairy Festival.

The festival – organized by Angela Wehnert, an Auburn resident and owner of Crescent Moon Gifts in Tacoma – gave fantasy enthusiasts the chance to gather and celebrate the coming of spring by dressing up as their favorite fantasy figure, whether they be fairies, pixies, brownies or sprites.

“The whole reason I started putting it on – and everybody comes up to me and says that I put on such a wonderful event for kids – I actually put it on for me,” Wehnert said. “It’s an escape from the mundane reality of your everyday life. You get to escape from work, you get to get away from paying bills and just be childlike and play and celebrate spring.”

This year’s event was no different.

Attendees were treated to a myriad of vendors, hawking fantasy art, costumes, books and props, as well as performances by such diverse artists as storyteller Marion Moat, the Bale Fire Irish Dancers and minstrel Alexander James Adams.

In addition, the event featured the antics of Wotan the Faerie Smasher – played by Seattle’s Eric Pope – a crude barbarian whose quest to smash fairies with his oversize, squishy hammer thrilled the audience.

“It went really well,” Wehnert said. “We had some different performers this year. We had Wotan the Barbarian, Princess Lolly and some others that people really enjoyed. It was probably one of the best events of all the years we’ve had it.”

For more information, visit www.springfairyfest.com.