#ebfest2015

(or, 10 reasons the Edmonton Burlesque Festival is Just The Best.)

This was my second time performing at the EBF and I will, absolutely, shoot for it again in 2016. “Don’t do the same festivals every year,” they say, “try to perform at a variety of events in different cities,” they say..  but, in my limited experience, this is the absolute best of the fests, and I’ll keep throwing my applications their way year after year. Why, you ask?

1. They really look after you, here.

I feel more recognized and taken care of at the EBF than anywhere else. The board members all make sure to acknowledge and welcome you as a performer and artist, despite the million things they’re juggling behind the scenes to make the weekend a success. My moments of one-on-one with them, even if necessarily brief, felt real and engaged - they’re genuinely happy to have each and every performer in their show. In addition, they give out cute swag bags full of cool sponsored stuff, provide a discounted hotel rate, supply backstage catering, and run free shuttle bus service to and from their lodging, venue, workshops, and social events. Last year there was a feedback survey where one question asked if we’d prefer an honorarium over performer perks. I thought “no way: all the things you do for us are far more valuable than straight-up payment!” Plus, performer perks eliminate loads of potential stress, and are so much warmer and more personal than money could ever be.

2. Location location location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

I’m lucky and proud to be Canadian, but our dollar is in the toilet and international travel and currency exchange is a huge drag; I paid an extra $0.32 per Americabuck while I was in Portland for ORBF last month and it ended up being the most expensive traveling showgirl adventure I’ve taken outside of BHOF (although that might be because Portland features many enticing fabric stores and I may have gone overboard). Inversely, our friends from the USA got a sweet deal and everything was way cheap! (Also, 0% provincial sales taxes!) Edmonton itself is adorable, too: I got to see more of it this year because the official hotel was right downtown and we enjoyed great walking-distance shops, food, a farmer’s market, and more! And I almost forgot to mention the theatre: the Royal Alberta Museum stage was a DREAM, the venue was the perfect size, and there were real dressing rooms: such luxury!

3. Representation.

This one is HUGE: I’ve never seen this level of visible diversity in a festival lineup before, and I LOVED IT! The EBF proved that this is not just a skinny white girl’s club (and yes, I am a skinny white girl, but I get bored watching people who look like me ALL the time: I see myself on the internet and in advertising and in the mirror and onstage regularly; it’s way more exciting to see people who DON’T look like me). Performers of all colours, shapes and sizes from all over North America shared that spotlight, the crowning glory being this year’s headlining trio: Foxy Tann, Red Bone, and Jeez Loueez; three extremely talented women of colour that I personally can’t get enough of. And from Rubenesque Burlesque’s collective middle finger defiantly raised at fat-shaming, to the many big beautiful performers embodying grace, humour, and sensuality, this lineup openly celebrated body diversity in ways that actually made me proud of burlesque again.

4. Boylesque.

The erasure of male striptease is, in its way, a feminist problem: men who take their clothes off on a stage are often vilified by society at large because they’re doing what is seen as “women’s work” or being “effeminate,” which is a backhanded way of implying that it’s degrading, weak, or emasculating. Furthermore, some feminist detractors of burlesque cite the scarcity of male performers as indicative of how burlesque is inherently unfeminist because it’s not equal-opportunity objectification (according to them). I was so, SO pleased to see a wide variety of boylesque at this festival, ranging from acts of gentle emotion to displays of raw physicality, playing with male stereotypes in the same way we ladies get to play with female stereotypes, incorporating humour, dance, creativity, culture, and everything else that makes us human. These performers felt less like a sideshow curiosity - more organically integrated into the lineup as a whole - than I’ve seen anywhere else. And let’s not forget the amazing James And The Giant Pasty, headliner number four. Yay, gentlemen!

5. The Burlesque Bunny Competition.

An ingenious way to include newer performers in the festival as a whole. I’ve qualified as a Bunny for the past couple festivals, and this competition (featuring performers with 2 years or less of stage experience) is a wonderful opportunity for up-and-coming artists to be recognized for what they’re bringing to burlesque. The competition is always friendly, and is judged by the weekend’s headliners who provide us with valuable feedback on our acts. It must be such a tough job to score and allocate awards, as I’ve been blown away (two years in a row, now!) by how unique and excellent the contestants are. The element of surprise surrounding who will win is a great audience draw to a night that might not have the same pull, otherwise. I won a thing last year, I didn’t win a thing this year, but it’s all good and I still had loads of fun!

6. The Grand Beaver of Burlesque.

Miss Judith Stein just won’t quit, and the festival invited this legendary Canadian to both speak and perform, inspiring her “baby beavers” (and maybe getting a bit spoiled by them, too,) and proving that you can still strut your stuff and wow a crowd after sixty. Further, the EBF awarded a special scholarship in Judith’s name to one lucky performer to cover their hotel costs, and provide an opportunity to learn from the Lady Divine herself in a one-on-one session over the weekend. (Congrats, Svetlana!) As if that weren’t enough, the festival created the Golden Beaver award (referring to one of Judith’s many appropriate nicknames; you can only appreciate how appropriate this is if you’ve heard a certain one of her stories about stripping in Guam,) which they bestow annually upon a pillar of the community working to support and improve burlesque. The inaugural Golden Beaver went to Judith herself; this year’s award went to the hard-working directors of the Edmonton Burlesque Centre!

7. Hotel hangouts.

I shared a full hotel room with four wonderful people: Ruby Slickeur stayed with us the first night (and schooled us all in drag makeup), Coco Creme is a badass performer/producer/powerhouse from Kamloops who I was SO happy to hang out with and get to know better, and Chastity Twist and Déjà Louve rounded out team 709. We shared styling tools and tips and products, and if one of us forgot something, someone else inevitably had it! Hot-tubbing buddies, remedial massages, snacks, and I brought a ton of tea to share (we really gave that single-cup in-room coffeemaker a workout). We visited and were visited by even more friends: Rufio Van Hoover (official photo sponsor as Reckless Photography and, incidentally, one of my oldest friends in the scene,) was right across the hall and often stopped by to say hi and eat food with us. Bruce Wang came by to make us some tea (as is customary) and iron his outfit in our room. Déjà invited a friend who was new to burlesque to join our pre-Saturday shenanigans, so she got to see how glamorous (and unglamorous) we all are behind the scenes. I really grew closer to everyone over the weekend, and chill hangs at the official hotel were a huge part of that.

8. Networking, and working.

It wasn’t all fun and debauchery: I heard reports of the producers among us discovering and recruiting acts for their shows in faraway places, and I myself was able to meet up with a couple clients for measurements and fittings while we were all in the same city! This helps elevate the festival experience to one of not just celebration, but legitimization of burlesque as a viable artform: if I (and others) can make professional connections and create opportunities for ourselves while we’re at these gatherings, we all win, and we all support each other that much more.

9. Events.

I didn’t participate in all of the events available to us because of tight funds, but I hear the MANY workshops offered on Saturday morning/afternoon were absolutely phenomenal, and well-attended, and I’m jealous, and now I can’t wait for BurlyCon in November. Add tea with Judith, morning yoga, fabulous-fun afterparties (including that Saturday night RAGER, holy heck!!) and the hangover luau at the still absolutely ridiculous West Edmonton Mall waterpark (which I haven’t been to since I was 6), and no one was ever at a loss for things to do. Education, community-building, and a ton of fun. This may be a subset of the “they really look after you, here” category, but it’s a huge and important subset, and I’d like to recognize the festival staff and volunteers who made it happen and made these things so easy and accessible for us!

10. Clowns.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the clowns? Clowns on the festival board, clowns from out of town, happy clowns, sad clowns, half-naked clowns, clowning around. I never thought I’d say this, but I really appreciated what a total ship of fools this weekend turned out to be, and I think my last conversation with Holly Von Sinn (over a pile of fries during the luau) really hit the nail on the head: she knows how serious burlesque can get and, like me, finds it a bit exhausting sometimes. It’s SO important to laugh at yourself now and then, and to remember that burlesque began as a mockery and parody of high art and high society. I love burlesque that can look at itself and laugh, and that’s really sort of the final frontier, in its way.