What is ABSFest?
ABSFest?
The Asheville Burlesque & Sideshow Festival is a multi-day event held during Memorial Day Weekend at venues across Asheville, NC. We offer up incredible shows, empowering workshops, artisanal vending and FREE community lectures. Nominated for Best Show in the Mountain Xpress Readers Choice Awards, ABSFest has attracted renowned circus and burlesque artists from across the US and overseas.
Take a class, enjoy a show, and join us in our 15th year of Keeping Asheville Weird!
Applications
We are always seeking a blend of burlesque and variety arts with a focus on the witty, empowered and political, as expressed through diverse bodies, skin tones, and gender identities.
Our application deadline for ABSFest is February 1, 2024.
Performer Application
Looking for artists for our shows: the Friday Speakeasy, the Saturday Spectacular, and the Burlesque Brunch!
Vendor Application
The Saturday Spectacular usually brings in 400 patrons, and a handful of lovingly chosen vendors like you.2024 Events
Whether you want tickets to the shows, or to sign up for workshops, you're in the right place!2024 Show Schedule & Tickets
Thursday, May 23
Friday, May 24
Saturday, May 25
Sunday, May 26
2024 Workshops
ABSFest is proud to offer burlesque, circus, & business workshops. Open to all levels!FAQ
ABSFest is a multi-day Burlesque & Sideshow festival held in Asheville, NC. Now in our 15th year, we offer epic shows, vending, and education for both the public and artists. A woman-owned and woman-run small business, we are a small but solid economic engine, paying artists and raising money each year for local nonprofits such as this year’s partner 501C3, Sister Kitten animal rescue.
ABSFest hires national and international artists to headline the festival each year, and selects other acts from the pool of Performer Applications. The festival is committed to the showcasing power of diversity in the arts. Representation matters, and we strive to bring many artistic disciplines, skin tones, body types, and gender representations onto our stages, classrooms and lecterns.
Fill out the Performer Application, send your press-ready pictures, and pay the application fee. Acts are juried so as to bring diverse, high quality programming to our stages. If your act is accepted, please be prepared to submit your music and tech specs promptly. Please note that Application fees are non-refundable but ALL Applicants will receive a Complimentary Show Ticket.
Staff, Tech and Acts get paid a stipend of $100 or more for the weekend, a Complimentary ticket to one of the many shows over the weekend, and festival Teachers keep 70% of their workshop revenues. The festival strives to help artists secure free accommodation during the event.
Every year we strive to pay more people, because it takes a village to build this incredible festival.
As a courtesy, we will steward a limited amount of your merch at the big Saturday show. You will need to provide the Vendor Coordinator with your merch, an inventory sheet, and a cash bank. If you want to make a bigger impression with your wares, you will want to rent a table. Talk to us, we can help!
Asheville has a modest airport, AVL, 20 minutes out. CLT in Charlotte is bigger with more, less costly flights, but a longer drive. There is street parking at the venues, but carpooling is wise in a tourist town like Asheville!
Yes. Nothing crazy, but we run our own camera and an independent contractor does the editing. Videos are $50 each, with a discount likely if you order multiple videos.
ABSFest honors one person per year onstage with an Artist Recognition Award for valiant work in the arts. In 2011, the award was renamed the Phil Slomski Artist Recognition Award, in memory of that fine artist and human taken from us too soon.
