About the Festival:
The Hollywood Burlesque Festival was founded in 2013 by the Foul-Mouthed Godmother of LA Burlesque Lili VonSchtupp. The festival debuted in 2013 crowning winners in a variety of Competition categories for a local audience. Previous Hollywood Burlesque Festival titleholders include April Showers (international spokesmodel and burlesque performer), Egypt Blaque Knyle (the most decorated performer in burlesque history), Foxy Lexxi Brown (Miss Viva Las Vegas 2018), Matt Finish (Mr. Exotic World 2015), and Tito Bonito (Burlesque Hall of Fame 2017 – Most Comedic). The festival is currently run by veteran performer and producer Miss Spent Youth.
Miss Spent Youth is focusing the festival on three distinct goals.
Build Community: Bring performers from all different backgrounds together to distinguish themselves in the community and to showcase the best they have to offer.
Educate: Classes at the festival will offer performers the chance to learn from other performers they do not have access to locally as well as the chance to offer their own knowledge to the general public and next generation of burlesque lovers and performers.
Bolster Local Businesses: Vendors will be comprised of performers, many of whom are small business owners themselves, as well as other small businesses who contribute to the burlesque community.
“There’s a new generation of burlesque blossoming in Los Angeles with a new surge of performers rising up to the occasion and we want to highlight these new voices as the older legends pass the torch.”
– Miss Spent Youth, Hollywood Burlesque Festival Producer
Mission Statement:
The Hollywood Burlesque Festival aims to ensure the ongoing tradition of burlesque in the arts and to raise awareness and appreciation of an art form that both empowers and admires the human figure. We believe that modern burlesque is for every body regardless of the previous beauty standards performers were forced to adhere to. We welcome acts of all styles and performers of any shape, size, color, ability, background, age, identity, gender, or economic class to join our stage and showcase what they have to offer to the art form as it grows and evolves.
Core Values:
Our core values are simple: we aim to create a safer place for performers and audiences alike to experience the best the world of burlesque has to offer. We do not allow discrimination of any kind at our festival, including, but not limited to, discrimination based on race, ethnicity, origin, age, gender identity, sexual identity, size, shade, shape, economic class, or ability.
The Shooting Star Mentorship Program:
In honor of our 10 year anniversary in 2023 we are launching the Shooting Star. The Shooting Star Peer Mentorship Program is an act workshop & development program dedicated to helping historically marginalized performers to elevate their submitted acts to showcase at the Hollywood Burlesque Festival. Selected performers will be paired with a mentor from the Los Angeles Burlesque Community to provide experience and guidance to help take their act to the next level before it hits the festival stage. Performer invited to participate in the Shooting Star Program will be notified via email.