WE SAW WEIRD PEOPLE >>>

Swarms of death-obsessed folks converged on downtown Tacoma today. From far and wide they came, like zombies searching for human necks, to take in the festivities at the Tacoma Art Museum's Day of the Dead community festival, as well as the Le Noir Bizarre in the lower level of Sanford and Sons Antiques. Some folks dropped in on both festivals.

Held in conjunction with Centro Latino, TAM's annual festival celebrated Dia de los Muertos with traditional music and dance, food, art activities, displays of art that included a traditional Tapete, or sand painting, and community altars honoring passed loved ones. It was also opening weekend for the impressive exhibit, Folk Treasures of Mexico, full of skeletons, devils and colorful spirits.

As in years past, the community showed up in throngs, forcing elbowing to get to the craft rooms and peruse the altars. There weren't as many altars this year, but still plenty of empty booze bottles as part of the displays. And the sugar skulls for decorating ran out early.

It's one of our favorite Tacoma community festivals of the year.

Down the street along Antique Row, Le Noir Bizarre, "The Dark Market," looked like what you'd expect if Jules Verne and Tim Burton had a garage sale. All the vendors were in costume, as well as many shoppers, and every 10th person was carrying a giant fake ray gun. There were hundreds of skulls and creepy dolls. Men in steampunk-inspired brass goggles rubbed elbows with Victorian-era dressed women. Quite a few costumes were cleavage friendly, creating a constant collision hazard for distracted attendees like yours truly.

Most of the action was in Sanford and Son's lower-level library floor, but the merchants in the above two floors dressed for the occasion too, including organizer Julia Jones holding court in her Goth fashion store, A Little Touch of Magick.

From the merchants and wandering characters to the music and theater, Le Noir Bizarre was dark bizarro fun.

LINK: More photos from the events

LINK: Le Noir Bizarre background story