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About the Festival
The Charm City Burlesque and Variety Festival (CCBVF) runs Friday September 27 through Saturday September 28, 2024 at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, home to some of Baltimore’s first burlesque and variety shows.
Burlesque is many things. It is sexy. It is sly. It is seductive. It shines a light on the morals and foibles of modern life and mocks them openly. In Baltimore, Burlesque is all of those things, and it is also unabashedly weird, strange, dark, funny, and a little bit twisted. Baltimore’s burlesque and variety stages have always welcomed the different and the avant-garde. Baltimore marvels in the filthy, the strange, the strangely beautiful, and the sometimes questionable and it makes it its own. The CCBVF celebrates all.
Friday September 27: Filthy Gorgeous
The festival kicks off with a celebration of the weird and twisted side of Baltimore area’s burlesque and variety scene. Expect to be both titillated and uncomfortable at the same time, in the most delicious way possible.
Saturday, September 28: The Tell-Tale Masquerade
Masquerade with us through the eerie ambiance on Saturday night. Don your finest attire and join the sinister mischief makers and the dreamers as we take you on a journey into all that is dark and whimsy. Let us entice you and titillate your senses with bewitching acts of burlesque, belly dance, sideshow, circus, and drag!
Saturday, September 28: The Tell-Tale Masquerade After Show Dark Dance Party
Stick around after the show for a dance party with DJ Villainess as she spins dark beats and hypnotic rhythms.
This festival will be inclusive and both respectful and cognizant of the people and places who have helped make Baltimore burlesque and variety what it is today – this especially includes the voices of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ performers, vendors, and partners who will be an important part in both the planning and execution of all events associated with the festival.
New for 2024 -- Applications open to performers nationwide !