2nd Annual Burlesque & Sideshow Festival
Future of Tradition Productions, in association with Arts 2 People, presents Asheville's second annual Americana Burlesque and Sideshow Festival (ABSFest). In 2007, ABSFest awakened the spirit of the bawdy, bold and satirical arts with resounding success. Over 500 festival attendees were dazzled!
For 2008, ABSfest is back: bigger, bolder and bawdier. This event is most deliciously Asheville.
FESTIVAL EVENTS
Red Carpet Vaudeville Gala: the event kick-off party
What: ABSFest kicks off with the rolling vaudeville theatre Asheville adores, LAZOOM Watch for LaZoom as they spirit the glamorous stars around downtown, passing out goodies, selling tickets, and stunning the tourists. Follow the stars to the Fine Arts Theatre, as they walk the red carpet, brave the Paparazzi, and join the throng at the ABSfest Vaudeville Gala. The evening offers scintillating live performance AND the Southeast Premiere of 'Underbelly', a documentary about international burlesque and bellydance superstar, Princess Farhana that contains footage of ABSfest 2007.
When: Friday, June 27th 2008. Downtown 8-9 PM; Fine Arts Theatre doors @ 9:30 PM
Where: downtown, then to the Fine Arts Theatre, Biltmore Avenue
Cost: Red Carpet Vaudeville Gala: $12
ABSfest Spectacular Cabaret: the main event & showcase extravaganza! Sure to titillate!
What: a fresh display of nationally acclaimed burlesque performances, sideshow freakiness and vaudeville flair. Burlesque, hula wonders, pain management, glass walking, brisk bullwhips, Siamese twins and more a luscious cabaret ruckus after party. Headlining is Baltimore's award winning acrobatic burlesque super duo, Trixie Little & the Evil Hate Monkey, Syrens of the South, Panty Raid, Big Mama D, and much more. Emceed by Mab, Just Mab. Complete with mystics, vendors and more carnie appeal. After party with The Mezmer Society. Last year's show sold 500 tickets! The Not-to-Miss show of the year.
When: Saturday, June 28, 2008. Doors 7 PM; show 8 PM.
Where: The Orange Peel
Cost: $25 advance, $30 at the door
Workshops
What: Get your freak on! Workshops in: beginning burlesque, advanced burlesque, boylesque, hula hoop, bullwhip, stage makeup, costuming, creating an arts-based business, acrobatic balance, stagecraft, swashbuckling, fire performance, and more
When: Saturday & Sunday June 28 & 29 2008 from 10 AM – 5 PM
Where: French Broad Co-op Movement & Learning Center, 90 Biltmore Avenue; select workshops @ the Orange Peel, TBA
Cost: $20 per workshops; $90 for a day's worth (5)
All access festival passes available for $200 – includes admittance to everything !
Party Pass: both parties/shows: $35
Some tantalizingly promising clips:
Headliners Trixie Little & The Evil Hate Monkey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92pGLRQpqFs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G3qsbv5Ths&feature=related
Whips Robert Dante & The Daring Tina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl31GTf-xhk&feature=related
Award winning Panty Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1UyXjBYUeQ
Juicy documentary Underbelly trailer
http://www.dikenga.com/films/underbelly/Trailer/default.asp
About Burlesque, Sideshow & Vaudeville
The satirical performance arts brought comedic entertainment and empowerment to the lower classes of American society throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. A mockery of the higher and more socially conservative classes, the vitality of Vaudeville and Burlesque were slowly eclipsed by mid-century morality laws and the advent of modern media. Sideshow harkens back to less commercial carnival days, glorifying human oddity and strange feats of willpower.
The Vaudeville Revival is a huge international movement with festivals around the world, exploring women's empowerment, questioning mainstream paradigms of 'normal', and offering unforgettable, good old fashioned American entertainment to those bold enough to pass thru those striped curtains to the midway beyond...