The pioneering neo-vaudeville festival celebrates its tenth anniversary with stellar performances, workshops, and more, May 27-29.
The weird, wicked, wild, and beautiful come to Asheville for the Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, also known as ABSFest. For those who may not know and for those that do, would you be so kind as to share the news? We have a huge lineup this year for our big ten year event.
During Memorial Day Weekend for the past ten years the crème de la crème of the neo-vaudeville revival have flocked to Asheville from around the world for the Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival (lovingly referred to as ABSFest). With its emphasis on variety in entertainment, artistic empowerment and nurturing creativity, ABSFest has solidly defined itself as “not just another burlesque festival” since its inception. Creator of ABSFest and head honcho of Future of Tradition Productions, Lauren “Madame Onca” O’Leary works year round to curate a cast of local, national, and international talent, while also working closely with local businesses to give the festival a uniquely Asheville feel – full of the bohemian community spirit that many Ashevillians know and love.
Embodying excellence and versatility in performance, this year’s headlining performer is Portland, Oregon’s Karolina Lux. Bellydancer, cirque performer, chanteuse, and trumpeter, Ms. Lux does it all with some of the best in the business including the crowd-pleasing March Fourth Marching Band, Beats Antique, Sepiatonic, and Vagabond Opera. Attendees will have two chances to see her – at the big show Saturday night at the Orange Peel, hosted by New Orleans’ self styled Preacher of Perversion, Ben Wisdom, and at the more intimate Friday night Speakeasy Saloon, featuring music by Asheville favorites, The Resonant Rogues and MC’ed by Carmel Clavin, vaudeville entertainer, producer of the Shenandoah Valley Fringe Festival and “chapeau champion.”
More raucous fun can be had by Friday night revelers at our tenth birthday celebration and “Last Pasties Standing: Welcome to the Glitterdome.” The brainchild of Atlanta’s gravity-defying fireball, Sadie Hawkins, who will also MC the event, Last Pasties Standing is an improv-only show filled with hilarity. Sunday morning closes the weekend out with an irreverent Burlesque Brunch hosted at the Grey Eagle by Pittsburgh’s cosmic jazz cabaret vocalist, Phat Man Dee.
Beyond the evening (and Sunday morning) festivities, the ABSFest Seminary will also be offering workshops taught by headliners and other accomplished artists where participants can learn anything from tease to trapeze to tips and tricks for traveling, networking, and more, and Sunday also offers a Vaudeville Bus Ride on a LaZoom bus through the city for festival artists.
For further information visit www.ABSFest.com.
