Last year's Vancouver International Burlesque Festival was one of the highest attended burlesque festivals in the world, per night, pulling greater attendances than the big cities like New York, Chicago, and London. Canada's longest running burlesque festival is back again for its eighth year, May 2nd to 4th.
Vancouver has become a hotbed for burlesque in North America. On any given week the city has at least two or three shows. Vancouver is a creative city says festival rep Sparkle Plenty. Burlesque attracts all kinds of artistic people interested in dance, theatre, music, costumes, and g-strings.
Neo-burlesque started as a counter-cultural movement, adds festival president, Blue Morris. But it's such an exciting art form that it has now gained audiences from all walks of life. This is especially true of Vancouver because we have such a great wealth of talented performers, producers, and teachers here.
The first night of the festival, which takes place in East Van's historic Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway), is what the festival calls Production Night. Three selected burlesque producers get one hour each to produce a burlesque show with a strong theme and the chance to use live musicians to support their acts.
The following two Showcase Nights take place at the Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). This year's headliners include the current reigning Queen of Burlesque, Imogen Kelly, who hails from Australia. She is known to work many different styles from classic, comedy, theatrical, grotesque and circus.
Also featured this year is Russell Bruner who won "Best Boylesque" at the Burlesque Hall of Fame's Tournament of Tease in Las Vegas. Russell Bruner has been entertaining for nearly a decade in variety arts. This gentleman juggler is known for his dance skills, acrobatics and circus arts.
Special guest Foxy Tann from Minneapolis will be hosting on Friday and Saturday nights, and will treat the audience to one of her signature acts for each night. Tickets
