The demand for gatherings catered to satanists is apparently high. SatanCon 2023, a convention organized by The Satanic Temple (TST) and billed as “the largest satanic gathering in history,” has sold out of tickets.
The convention is set to be held in Boston on April 28-30, and its theme will be “Hexennacht in Boston.” Hexennacht is one of the five religious holidays TST celebrates, a German feast that takes place every April and commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga.
TST has promised that SatanCon will be a “weekend of blasphemy and remembrance,” and it will feature lectures, panels, live entertainment, and a “Satanic Marketplace.”
Sessions include a retrospective on TST from founders Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry, as well as lectures on topics including “Deconstructing Your Religious Upbringing,” “Reclaiming the Trans Body,” and “Satanism and the BIPOC Experience.”
The conference will also offer multiple sessions on the history of satanism and demonology.
TST announced via an Instagram post that the event had sold out, encouraging attendees to purchase tickets for an entertainment event called “Impius Conventus,” which will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 29. That event will feature Maddelynn Hatter, reality television personality and drag performer.
In addition to commemorating the tenth anniversary of TST’s founding, the conference is dedicated to Boston mayor Michelle Wu “for her unconstitutional efforts to keep TST out of Boston’s public spaces.” TST brought a lawsuit against the city of Boston in 2021 after being denied multiple requests to deliver the invocation at a City Council meeting, citing an alleged First Amendment violation on the basis of their stated religious beliefs.
A previous SatanCon event was held in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was dedicated to Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane and city council member Suzanne Klapp, who also denied the group’s request to deliver the invocation at a City Council meeting there. TST also sued Scottsdale but ultimately lost that legal battle.
Though TST employs satanic imagery, the organization is a nontheistic institution that uses Satan as a satirical symbol of their skepticism and adversarial relationship with the cultural dominance of Christianity.
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According to their website, the “mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits.”
