It's not every day you get a chance to ride a unicorn.

Stonehedge Gardens, 51 Dairy Road, Tamaqua, is hosting its first Faerie FanFaire Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23. Admission is $7, or $5 for Stonehedge members; children age 10 or younger are free.Event planner Mareen Thomas-Norman, who is also a Stonehedge volunteer and owns Purple Sage Healing on the gardens' grounds, said that the faerie festivals are popular worldwide."They (the faerie festivals) are getting just as popular as the Renaissance fairs, so we decided to try one and hopefully make it an annual event," she said. "Whether you're 2 years old or 99, everybody has an inner child that will love this."And there's plenty to love. At 1 p.m. in the herb garden, The Tamaqua Community Theatre will present the play "The Woodsman and the Faerie," which is based on an Aesop's Fable. It's a short play with simple characters, with a strong message on the importance of telling the truth, suitable for children 5 to 9. Don't get too comfortable, because the performers will do their best to involve the audience.From 3 to 5 p.m., The Tamaqua Community Theatre will present Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." For information about additional performances and times, visit

www.stonehedgegardens.org.The day will also be filled with traveling minstrels, unicorn rides using a pony and a horse, face painting, craft tables, a crowning of a faerie queen and a performance by the Lady of the Lake, also based on a Shakespeare play. More than two dozen vendors will be on hand."This will be a first for our Schuylkill and Carbon county area," Thomas-Norman said. "Some of the wandering minstrels are coming from as far away as Ohio."