The 3rd Annual Charm City Burlesque & Variety Festival (CCBVF) runs Friday, September 26 through Saturday, September 27, 2025 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.
Additional performances for both shows TBD! All performances will showcase our burlesque & variety community!
FRI SEP 26 | 8PM | Filthy Gorgeous Variety
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.
Hosted by: Delilah Dentata & Jim Dandy
Headliner: GiGi Holliday
Featuring: Tapitha Kix, Ruby Rockafella, Bunny Vicious, Paolo Garbanzo, Onca O’Leary, Lula Lioness
Performers: TBD
Stage kittens: Minuet De Baiser, Charlie Lawless
SAT SEP 27 | 8PM | 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! Stick around after the show for a dance party with DJ Villainess as she spins dark beats and hypnotic rhythms.
Hosted by: Eden
Headliner: Poison Ivory
Featuring: Maria Bella, Kalypso Kraken, Bearcat Betty, Caza Blanca, Onyx D. Pearl, Meighan Vu, Valentina
Performers: TBD
Stage kittens: Minuet De Baiser, Charlie Lawless
After the Saturday show, prepare thine selves for some dark beats! As we proceed with the processional after party to mourn and celebrate the events of the earlier evening.
Make sure to bring your best dance shoes or stompy boots as DJ Villainess will be spinning the Macabre (goth/dark dance music) till we shut the venue down. Let’s all celebrate our love for the dark and spooky together.
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The CCBVF runs Sept. 26 – Sept 27 and is produced by performers Maria Bella & Tapitha Kix. The two-day event will include performances, classes, lectures, and panels celebrating the history, art, and people of Baltimore’s wonderful, weird, and diverse burlesque and variety performing arts.
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The festival is inclusive, 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 have been an important part in both the planning and execution of all events associated with the festival. The CCBVF includes a committee that provides a forum for committed burlesque & variety community members to advise, inform, and offer critique to the festival.
Also check out other Entertainment events in Baltimore, Festivals in Baltimore, Performances in Baltimore.
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