Events

In-Person Gathers

A gather is the otherkin answer to a convention or festival, but much smaller (typically 10-30 attending, although some of the gathers of yore had 50-70) and sometimes taking on aspects of a spiritual retreat. They are often, though not always, done in a camping format rather than hotel both for reasons of cost and the desirability of a natural setting. They last longer than a meetup, usually 2 to 4 days including a weekend; a single-day event might be called a "mini-gather". Unfortunately, even before COVID screwed everything up in 2020, all the true gathers I was aware of had already become defunct.

As of the last time I updated this page in 2022, the only thing really left was the House Kheperu Gather, which was not even an otherkin gather as such (despite using the word "gather'), but a metaphysical/energy-work event with some workshops specific to Kheprian vampires, although otherkin might find something of value there. In 2020 and 2021, they moved online, as many did; but at this point I'm not sure this event still exists in any form, online or off, because in February 2025 their website says to "stay tuned" for information about the 2024 event. Sooo...

In-Person Meetups

Sometimes also known as "mini-meets", these are short in-person events typically lasting a few hours.

Groups that list otherkin as an interest at Meetup.com may help you find local Others, but Meetup has declined in popularity as a platform as they started introducing what seemed to me rather punitive pricing and restrictions.

I used to run the San Francisco Bay Area Otherkin Meetup, but finally retired from it in 2023 after holding it online for a few years due to COVID. The page is still up for historical interest.

Faerie in Phoenix: Hope, Wonder, and Deliria is the latest incarnation of the Arizona group that used to put on the (Fireland) Phoenix Faerie Festival, a.k.a. OtherWorlds Festival. I've never been clear whether they are an otherkin group per se or just friendly to us, but maybe worth a shot.
Once we were the Phoenix Faerie, building a network of fae loving people and fae aspected beings in the arid southwest. It is in that core's memory that the meetup group's name remains. We sought to replenish ourselves and others with the wellspring of Myth, Story, Art and Community. ... We realized that there were so many other sorts of entities and otherkin out there though. ... Our festival was renamed the OtherWorlds Festival as we reached out to all the Other entities and Other possibilities. ... Let us remember. To the average person, we are all OtherFolk.

Online Gathers and Meetups

Andros Starborn runs the MythicSpace Virtual Meetup, a bimonthly online meetup using a lightweight meeting software similar to Zoom called Jitsi that can be accessed by web browser or mobile app.

In August 2020, Dinocanid and some other folk from Tumblr threw an online event on Discord called Othercon. As you might guess from the -con terminology, it was more like a fan convention than a gather proper. It was successful and has become an annual thing, with the next event to take place August 12-14, 2022. Their target audience is the intentionally broad term "alterhuman" (any kind of "nonstandard" being: otherkin, therians, fictionkin, vampires, multiples/plurals, other-hearted/otherkith, starseeds, soulbonders, coping-linkers, daemians, tulpamancers, possibly even things like furries) and the crowd skews strongly towards therians (or "animal-kin") and modern fictionkin.

Given the success of Othercon, in September 2020 I started talking to a couple of friends about doing an event in a similar format, but with a specific focus on the elfae spectrum: Elves, Sidhe, Fae, and Tuatha De Danann. Thus was born Shining Hearth, which is head annually on the fourth weekend in March.

There is now also a similar Discord event for dragons, called The Draconic Summit. They hold events twice annually in the summer and winter, and also are sponsoring some small in-person events.

Non-Otherkin Events

Otherkin can also sometimes be found at various kinds of festivals or conventions that are not specifically devoted to us, and may occasionally even have enclaves or targeted events similar to the 'Kin-Meet that the SF Bay Otherkin Meetup did at PantheaCon (a Pagan convention). Rather than list a bunch of individual events (since there a great many of them), I will point you to some directories:

Furry conventions: WikiFur, Upcomingcons, FanCons

Science fiction/fantasy cons: Upcomingcons, SciFiCons, FantasyCons, FanCons

Renaissance faires: Renaissance, Medieval & Pirate Faire Directory

Faery festivals: The Fairy Tree, Faerie Festival Calendar

Pagan conventions and festivals: Linda's List of Pagan Festivals, Wikipedia list of Neo-Pagan festivals and events, Summer Pagan Festivals: a Guide (this list is from 2014 and some of the specific event links are broken, but most of the festivals themselves still exist)

last updated: 2/16/2025