Founders of Elfia

Stefan Struik and Helena Struik are the inventors behind the Elfia phenomenon. Brother and sister Struik came together with a shop concept Elf Fantasy Shop. The first shop was opened on 29 November 1994 at Vrouwenregt 3 in Delft, the Netherlands. In 2001, the first Elf Fantasy Fair was organised at the Archeon in Alphen a/d Rijn, the Netherlands. This phenomenon of an outdoor fantasy event/costume event did not yet exist anywhere in the world in 2001. There were outdoor medieval events or just scifi happenings (all indoor). But the mix of all kinds of costume styles and subcultures in a fairy-tale setting such as a castle was an unknown phenomenon. Cosplay also had yet to really take off. For instance, the first (indoor) world cosplay summit would only take place at the end of 2003 in Japan with only 5 cosplayers.

Stefan birthed the concept Drach-oc in 2024, which consists of a manga (read for free via Webtoon) and a vegan chocolate brand Drach-oc.