The Shadow Art Fair — a popular twice-yearly Ypsilanti event featuring art, crafts, food, music and more — will take a break this winter for a different type of event, organizers have announced.

In place of the Winter Shadow Art Fair this winter, organizers of the Michigan Design Militia have announced a "Krampus Costume Ball," named after a mythical figure described as "a sort of anti-Santa Claus."

Next summer's Shadow Art Fair is expected to return as usual.

According to the announcement of the change, "In contrast to Santa's gift-giving to good children, Krampus, a darker, scarier, incubus-like creature, is a punisher of children who are bad. The Krampus Costume Ball will feature DJs, dancing, a 'prom pic' booth, cash prizes for the best costumes, parading through the streets of Ypsilanti, another fabulous Shadow Brew, and more."

The event will take place at traditional SAF home the Corner Brewery, 720 Norris St., on Dec. 11.

"What we've done is taken the vendor-based fair out of the game for this winter's event and replaced it with something that really allows anyone in the community to show their artistic side. Everyone can participate in this winter's Shadow," Jennifer Albaum, one of the organizers, said in a prepared statement. "Each time we plan a Shadow, we're trying to think of ways to expand our event deeper within the community. Ultimately, that's what everyone wants, and we feel our solution does just that."

In a follow-up email, Albaum elaborated on the change:

"We're not abandoning the Shadow completely...just for this winter. We'll be back during the busiest SAF, the summer version, in full form!

"The organizers have been voluntarily putting this on ...for you twice per year for the last six years. It's the only art fair organized by volunteers (no pay) and the only one that occurs two times in a year.

"You can imagine that after six years of organizing two Shadows per year, the organizers might go through life changes that don't allow them to contribute as much time to organizing as they once did when we started. That, and considering how many applicants are turned away each time, we decided that we wanted to do something more inclusive, rather than EXclusive (another thought was to cancel it altogether).

"We decided to morph the Winter Shadow into something we felt would accommodate all types of Shadow Art Fair supporters, including those who want to create something artistic, but don't have the ability to come up with items to vend.  We felt this option was good for the entire community, the artists, the volunteers, and the organizers.

"We thought that a big party, where everyone could hang-out and enjoy each others company in an artistically-supportive atmosphere was the right answer.  And we're actually quite excited about celebrating the camaraderie that the Shadow Art Fair has been able to generate."