The lawn outside the Oniset Wigwam Spiritualist Camp was bustling on Saturday for the opening of the biannual, two-day Psychic Fair.

“We’ve been mobbed today,” said Patti Craig, the president and minister. She said that the psychics, mediums, card-readers and astrologers had been booked for much of the day.

In addition to a number of regular visitors, Craig said she’d seen many people nervously come for a first-time reading. 

“After they got it, the loved it,” Craig said. “People are hurting.”

Craig said she thought the difficult past year may have increased interest in readings.

“When somebody has a loss and they come in, it brings a little closure when they find out that people can come back,” Craig said. “It gives them a little comfort.”

Craig explained that it’s not always possible to contact a particular loved one who has passed on — that person might be “busy on the other side.”

But sometimes, contact can be made in ways that surprise even a seasoned medium like Craig:

Each Thursday night, the Wigwam hosts a psychic gallery night. One psychic got a message for an attendee from that person’s grandfather, saying “When the lights go on by themselves, it’s me.” Shortly after, a solar-powered lighthouse in the Wigwam lit up and stayed lit.

“It was such validation,” Craig said.

Terri Amaral, who attended the fair all the way from Iowa, said her reading was a “super positive experience.”

“It kind of puts things in perspective and eases my mind,” Amaral said.

In addition to readings, the fair hosts a variety of vendors selling hand-crafted art, pet portraits, jewelry, and other goods.

Joanne Bennett, Amaral’s sister from Seekonk, was selling a variety of small succulent plants. Her father ran Ralph’s Greenhouse until he passed away, and Bennett, who said she did not inherit her father’s green thumb, was trying to find new homes for the plants as quickly as possible.

“He had a thing for cactus,” Bennett said. In addition to the dozens of tiny succulents she had at the fair, she said several of her father’s waist-height cacti — some of which are decades old — are still available at the greenhouse.

Bennett’s father was a woodworker and built the solar-powered lighthouse Craig spoke about.

Jaime Mitton and Amy Rose, long-time friends who described themselves as soul sisters, had a variety of jewelry and other goods on offer, many including crystals. Rose uses wire-wrapping to make jewelry, while Mitton uses resin to make jewelry, incense burners, and art pieces.