STARKVILLE — For the past year, Taylor Barr and Lily Jones have been living double lives. By day, they are students at Mississippi State University, going to class and enjoying dating each other during their senior year. By night, they are the co-directors of the “Midnight Bizarre,” a quarterly artist market geared toward the proudly “weird” parts of the city. 

Now, the couple is preparing for the last Midnight Bizarre – named as a pun of the word “bazaar” – as they near graduation.  The event will be Saturday from 8 a.m.-midnight downtown.

“I would call the bazaar ephemeral,” Jones said, when asked to describe the market to someone who had never seen it before. “…  It appears on a random date glowing right in the middle of town, and then four hours later, it’s like nothing was ever there.” 

The Midnight Bizarre, which Jones also referred to as a “bite-sized festival,” includes art vendors, food trucks, musical performances and more filling up the old Starkville Community Market location on East Lampkin Street from 8 p.m. to midnight. But unlike Bulldog Bash, or other events Barr and Jones could attend on campus, the quarterly market is geared toward the city’s strangest and anyone who feels they are outside of “the mainstream.” 

“I really wanted to fit in for most of my life, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t do it,” Jones said. “But this felt like I finally gave in to the weirdness and what I wanted to do.” 

Barr, a theater and math student, originally came up with the idea for the Midnight Bizarre when he saw the Starkville Community Market location standing empty in the middle of town. He envisioned using it as a public performance space and came up with the event name pun based on its target audience.

“I had been seeing that spot for a while, and I always wanted to do something with it,” Barr said. “… I started pressing local groups, seeing how that could work out … and then Lily came on and asked who knows about this. … She started the Instagram (account) and actually making it possible.” 

Jones, a communication student, worked to get the word out about the event. But the biggest hurdle the couple faced was just getting the event off of the ground the first time. 

Before their first market, Jones said she was messaging vendors under the desk during her classes and “prying her eyes open” at night to keep organizing the event. 

Barr said he was “calling sponsors between classes,” hoping to find people who would support their event. He said the pair were “selling an idea.” 

On March 26, 2022, the pair threw the first Midnight Bizarre. They were both surprised by how quickly people embraced the nighttime art market, and by the demand that followed for them to host another. They planned another in August. Then another in November. 

Each time Barr and Jones planned the event, it grew. By their August market, the pair found more vendors and built a stage for their performers. By November, they had gained more sponsors. As the market grew, it got stranger. 

“It has a slightly fantastical element,” Jones said. “People come, and they come dressed up in … elf ears and shiny outfits, and it kind of feels like stepping out of Starkville in the middle of Starkville.” 

Barr said people have shown up fully painted blue, dressed in tuxedos and in all other kinds of clothes and costumes for the event. It gained a kind of “cult following.” 

Both Barr and Jones agreed that one of the most important parts of the bazaar was the diverse community that formed around it. 

“I think (it) is a very diverse place,” Jones said. “It’s very queer (LGBTQ+), it’s very racially diverse. … But I’ve started to recognize people from certain bazaars, and to recognize usernames that like our posts. … And so much of the feedback that we’ve had is that the bazaar feels like a safe space for them to connect with other queer and neurodivergent people.” 

Barr said the market has also helped to create connections between artists, as people who are working in the city can compare their prices, get to know each other, and draw inspiration from each others’ work. It also gave budding artists the opportunity to sell their work, for only the cost of renting a table. 

“I was really focused on having our students start making money now,” Barr said. “Our theater pushes the fact that … if you’re an artist, you need to be doing art. You need to be selling art. So you try to get good at it and get experience at it.” 

Over the past year of coordinating the Midnight Bizarre, Jones and Barr have never cut themselves a check. They have always reinvested any money left over into the next market to make it a little bit better. 

But with graduation coming up, the pair decided it is time for their double life — and The Midnight Bizarre — to come to an end. 

“I think that people have taken inspiration from it, but they want to do their own event,” Jones said. “Which is really great, because I don’t want them to feel like they have to take on our passion project.” 

When Barr and Jones move to Colorado later this year, they will be taking the “Midnight Bizarre” pun with them. But Barr said he would be happy to help someone else take over a similar event in the future. Jones agreed, emphasizing the fact that this artist market is “something anyone can do.” 

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