Fargo Zine Fest 2025

Very belatedly, I wanted to look back on something I was proud of last year but didn't have energy to celebrate at the time. I organized the second annual Fargo Zine Mini Fest in November. In 2024 the fest was held at the Red Raven's art space, but with that closed it was necessary to move it over to another community space, Parachigo. It was a great fit and I thought the space really matched the DIY-ness of zine making. 

Unfortunately the timing of the event coincided with a lot of turmoil in my personal life and I wasn't able to enjoy the planning/lead up like I did the first year. It made me feel unprepared and stressed about if I got the word out enough. That has been my greatest struggle with running an event myself, I worry that artists might be disappointed with whatever the turnout is or won't feel it was worth their time. Luckily, this is a zine event so most people aren't in it for the money! Usually it's the interactions with people and sharing their work that makes it worthwhile for zinesters, so I hope that it was for everyone. The turnout was bigger in 2024 but still steady, so thank you so much to the attendees. It was especially wonderful to talk to people who had come the previous year, I'm glad people wanted to return! 

My plan is to keep the ball rolling with the event in 2026 and hopefully word will keep spreading. Especially my hope is for more area creators to start making zines and join the event!