Would you like to try living deliciously? Want to gather with others venerating the gods of old?


Join us for a taste of witchy readings and music and to be spellbound at Gang Gang café on THURSDAY 06th MAY 2026. And help us celebrate the release of LOST SOULS Issue 03!


NOTIFY ME WHEN TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE

In our second “Macabre Dreams” event for 2026, LOST SOULS MAGAZINE is honoured to host a night of performances from local authors and artists, one inspired by that centuries old community of practice, the coven.

We hope to help share beguiling stories and music about encounters with the supernatural, goddesses and gods of the imagination, journeys mysterious and strange and finding the “sacred” in daily life.

Our night also aims to help honour the Samhain (pronounced ‘sah-win’), a time of year long celebrated as part of coven rituals. Traditionally, Samhain is celebrated in late April or early May in the Southern Hemisphere (31st October in the Northern Hemisphere).

We will be also celebrating the release of LOST SOULS MAGAZINE Issue 03. Packed with strange creations from contributors in Canberra and Melbourne, it is our biggest issue so far!

'Spellbound’ will be held:


6:30pm - 9pm, Thursday 07th May (doors open 6pm)

Gang Gang cafe (Shop4/2 Frencham Pl, Downer ACT 2602)


The night aims to help celebrate and promote the work of local artists and professionals creating “beautiful, strange and dark” work, with a focus on the sense of community possible through “covens”. The event features performers reading a mixture of stories that directly and indirectly engage with the idea of shared participation in acts of ritual magic, honouring supernatural deities, finding sacred power in nature and re-discovering spiritual and other “alternative” forms of identity.


Covens can also be valuable for sharing stories and inspiring works of fiction and finding practical and emotional support from others. 


Stories include those about: the connection and respite possible through everyday practices of witchcraft; the power of dance to mark seasonal cycles, land fertility and shared grief places; benevolent authority and passive resistance; and, the morbid curiosity in hearing voices of the dead.


As part of our storytelling, we will reflect on Samhain. Samhain is a magical time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. It is also an important opportunity to honour ancestors.


Readings will be complemented with a solo musical performance of darker, country-inspired folk music that similarly engages with the theme of collective power in witchcraft.


The evening will conclude with an interactive conversation with the performers about their work, the craft of storytelling and what can be learned from honouring the practice of covens more generally.


Print copies of LOST SOULS Issue 03 will also be available for purchase. Posters and other artwork by C. H. Pearce.



ENTRY FEES AND TICKET BOOKINGS

General public:


$10 (entry fee)

Or

$28 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Magazine Issue 02)

Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild members:

$5 (entry fee)

Or

$23 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Magazine Issue 02)



Book tickets

Email us to be notified when tickets are available.



Line up

Americo Alvarenga (writer)
Megan Cook (owner of The Sacred)
Maddie Jiang (singer/songwriter)
C.H. Pearce (writer/artist)
Imogen Wall (writer/artist)


MC and Panel Host: Fionn MacPherson (writer and editor)



Food, drinks and merchandise

Food and drink will be available for purchase from Gang Gang cafe.


LOST SOULS Issue 02, books and other work by artists will also be available.


LOST SOULS Issue 03 purchased with an event ticket can be picked up at the venue.



Location and parking

Gang Gang (Shop4/2 Frencham Pl, Downer ACT 2602) is a cafe, bar and a live music venue
located in Downer Shops. The cafe is about a 10 minute drive from the middle of Canberra city, or 20 minutes by bicycle.

Parking is available in Downer Shops and along the ovals of Downer Playing Fields.


Why hold this event? Compelled to be disturbed and delighted

Many Canberrans and others across Australia are fascinated by dark, strange and beautiful arts. From horror novels, cyberpunk short stories, weird nonfiction and macabre poetry, to movies about the supernatural, witchy crafts, albums of beguiling and seductive rock and graphic novels about the monstrous and grotesque, we are primed to be creeped out. To be afraid, but to also listen, question and learn.


Many of us like to experience the gothic, uncanny and fantastic as a way of making sense of the past and present. Perhaps so that we can reveal unsettling truths about a world that often feels like it teeters on the edge of destruction. Or know more about the perils and joys of daily life. And, simply, to find pleasure in creativity and the mystery of the unknown.


Despite such interest, there are few regular events featuring local artists with their own unique spin on the beautiful and dark arts. This is a unique opportunity given Canberra has a strong and diverse group of artists who shed a bizarre and illuminating light on a variety of issues and topics. Their work contributes insights about identity, memory, love, politics, technology, survival and so much else of what it means to live in the 21st century. Often, with grace, style, wonder and infectious black humour.


We hope to help share the work of many talented artists and increase their opportunities to engage with audiences offline as well as online. 


We also feel that as the end of Autum approaches in Canberra, it is a valuable time to explore the meaning of group experiences of covens and similar shared experiences, and how this learning may help in the celebration and work of local creatives.



References

[1]  A. B. McGill, “The Witch, the Goat and the Devil: A Discussion of Scapegoating and the Objectification of Evil in Robert Eggers’ The Witch,” Theol. Today Ephrata Pa, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 409–414, 2018.


[2] E. White, Wicca: history, belief and community in modern pagan witchcraft. Chicago: Sussex Academic Press, 2016.


[3]  M. Cook, “About The Sacred,” The Sacred. Accessed: Mar. 18, 2026: https://thesacred.au/about


[4] B. Kosmina, Feminist Afterlives of the Withc: Popular Culture, Memory, Activism, 1st ed. 2023 in Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023.

[5] S. Wasson, “‘Coven of the Articulate’: Orality and Community in Anne Rice’s Vampire Fiction,” J. Pop. Cult., vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 197–213, 2012.



Contact and more information

Ben O'Mara 


e: ben@lostsouls.net.au
w: lostsouls.net.au

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Lost Souls Magazine in print and online is proudly independent.


We are based in Melbourne and Canberra.

The design and development of this website was based on a scoping of best practice and relevant examples. Work included websites for Heat Magazine, Meanjin, Overland, The New Yorker, Rue Morgue, Dark Mountain, The Dark and Weird Studies.

We acknowledge, recognize and pay our respect to the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung of the Kulin who are the traditional owners of lands where we work and live in Victoria, and the Ngunnawal who are the traditional custodians of land in the Australian Capital Territory.

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