01/02/2026
Hello lovely Souls 💚,
I’d like to reintroduce Your Soul Expo to you, and now that I've written it all out, I’d suggest you make a cuppa to read it all 😆!
'Your Soul Expo' is exactly that, an expo that is created for you. I organise each event and tailor it to the location. It’s designed to include practitioners and creators from the region it’s being held in, supported by those who travel in from other areas. The intention is to showcase local practitioners to the community, to network with other practitioners, and to allow visitors to meet others with similar interests in an inclusive, public and safe environment.
It is not designed as an opportunity for my business to trade and make money - I can easily book into a shopping centre, a market or simply work from my motel room, and I continue to do that regularly. I create Your Soul Expos in response to community requests.
* Let me tell you a little about myself to explain. I’ve been operating Avalon by Nature full-time for 15 years, and before that, I worked as a community development worker in Sydney and an organiser with the Australian Services Union for social services, based in Newcastle and looking after 4 regional areas, including Newcastle, Hunter, New England and Mid North Coast. I travelled regularly from Newcastle to Kempsey, across to Armidale, Tamworth, Muswellbrook and Singleton. I also went up as far as Macksville and Moree when needed. My mother lived in Moore Creek for about 8years and she studied at UNE when I was in high school. I’ve worked at the Tamworth Country Music Festival Psychic Fair several times, as well as had pop-ups in Tamworth, Armidale, Muswellbrook and Singleton for almost 10 years.
* People talk to me, in fact, they chew my ear off because I’m captive lol and a good listener. I ask questions to find out more, and I let people tell me all sorts of interesting metaphysical and community information about the areas they live in. In Armidale, I was told over and over that they didn’t have a wide range of new-age/spiritual/witchy style retail outlets (or any publicly practising psychics), and these comments increased once people moved from Lismore after the tragedy of the floods there. My pop-up stand appeals to a wide range of people, and often, because it’s in a mainstream location, it looks inviting, and people can browse without being bombarded with information about the products. I’ve long recognised it’s an opportunity to meet people and gently introduce them to a different way of seeing the world.
* I’ve organised small events when I had my own shop in The Entrance (Central Coast), but stopped when I closed the shop and went fully mobile. In 2022, I was asked to put together an event on the Central Coast, as there hadn’t been anything for a while during the covid pandemic, and the regular organisers were still on hiatus. It was a huge success, even by my standards! I started thinking about Armidale and asking people whether they’d be interested in an event in town. I decided to start small, with a one-day event to test the waters and not put too much financial pressure on travelling stallholders. It had a rocky start as I’d inadvertently chosen the same weekend as the Big Chill Festival. After sorting out a better date, we got underway, and 25 brave souls bumped into the auditorium with me in May 2024. It was well attended, and I received fabulous feedback from visitors and stallholders. I think the proudest moments for me were walking around and listening to the buzz of animated conversation throughout the whole day. There were hiccups, which we managed to work through, but overall, the day was a success, and after I recovered, I decided to do it again, doing so in June 2025, with 19 stalls. Financially, I covered my costs and took home a modest sum, but it’s not a huge money-spinner for me, and certainly not for the hours spent organising it, but as I said earlier, that’s not the purpose of the expo. I don’t need them for my work; I organise them for You.
* That brings me to this year. One of our stallholders in 2025 offered a workshop twice through the day, and it was very well-received. I judged that it was time to expand a bit, and my plan was to bring the Expo back to May and trial a day of workshops on Saturday and the full Expo on Sunday. This concept built on the previous two years of gaining the visitors' trust and responding to requests for more workshops. It’s a slow process, and I can hear you thinking: Why didn’t I do that in the first year? Why didn’t I make it a two-day expo in the first year? Honestly...... I didn’t think I could pull it off! I wanted to start with what I knew I could achieve, see how that was received and build on that. I’ve been visiting the region for many years, and I still receive many negative comments about my products from shoppers. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t bring practitioners and retailers together for something that wasn’t wanted after all.
* For context, there has been an industry-wide practice of organisers competing for dates, venues and locations, and it’s become very toxic in the last two years. I don’t need to give details here, but it’s relevant because when an organiser from the Hunter region booked the same date and venue as I had planned for this year, I decided not to make a public fuss about it, but to find a way to work alongside them. I offered to focus on organising workshops to be held in the adjoining room at the club and set about sourcing them. However, with a clear head recovered from the shock of the date-clash, I realised that I wasn’t financially ready to organise workshops without the back-up of the funds generated by organising the main expo. I decided to step back and allow the other organiser a clear run at her expo. I understand now that it is not proceeding either.
* I guess you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this? Isn’t it like airing dirty laundry in public? My answer is to share with you my vision for the public events that I specialise in. By sharing my background in community development and organising workers to improve their living and work standards, I’m showing you the way that I’m approaching event organisation, and how I intend to continue working.
* My next step is to design a survey to invite suggestions on what a mind-body-soul expo could be and to give me direction for sourcing quality practitioners, creatives and retailers to exhibit at them. I am returning to Armidale in mid Feb for a pop-up at Armidale Central and will have the survey available there as well as online. I invite you to contribute your suggestions, and I look forward to creating an inclusive Soul Expo for You.
Cheers, Jo Avalon 🚐💚
Awabakal Country
