Hello burlesque folks!
Hard to believe that following our most successful and most attended Weekender back in June, we are already at it again! Next year’s Weekender is already in production, following the signing of the contract with the Orleans Hotel & Casino for June 5th – 8th, 2014, so mark those calendars now! This will be our fifth year in a row at the Orleans, we are more than happy with their hospitality team and look forward to developing our residency there.
So what’s new for this year? By now, you may have seen the update to the application rules and judging criteria but if you haven’t, take a look here. The overall application and judging processes will remain the same, but every year we tweak the application in response to applicant/attendee and Weekender Production Committee feedback.
Before getting into one of the major changes for 2014, we’d like to present a few points:
- Performer application will go live on Monday, November 4th at noon PST.
- We have moved the deadline earlier by one week to Monday, January 27th at 11:59PM PST. This is to allow the selection committee more time to review all applications.
- Our strict rule against liquids, fire and since last year, mylar confetti, still stands. We will not consider acts with these substances .
- We will be strictly enforcing full nudity limitations on stage this year, please review the updated rule.
- Applicants will have access to presale tickets before the general public, just like last year.
- Just like last year, we will offer school group discounts for groups larger than six and an even bigger discount for groups larger than ten! Start collecting funds, group sales must be completed in one transaction. We’ll begin announcing presale information in March.
- And UNLIKE last year, we will be going with a different ticketing system. We heard the frustration and we thank everyone for their kind feedback. We’re always looking to provide a better experience for our attendees so stay tuned, a better, more responsive system is coming your way!
One big change for 2014 is that we will now allow applicants to submit up to two acts! In the past, we restricted the number of submissions to one act per application per performer and for good reason — we wanted to place quality over quantity. And it worked out pretty well, performers rose to the challenge of imbuing their one act with only their best.
Our new policy doesn’t change that goal, we will always stress quality over quantity. However, we realize that many performers in the community have a wide range of talents that can’t be combined coherently into one act. In order to allow applicants greater creative freedom to show the selection committee their talents, we decided to allow up to two acts per category that’ll show your best without overextending yourself. So if you feel that you have two stage-ready acts that will display your versatility for this year, then bring it on!
Keep in mind though, we will treat the second video as a separate application. Each act will be evaluated separately and on its own merits, not in conjunction with the second submission. We urge all applicants to really consider whether both acts can individually stand alone and whether both acts show us something different about your talent before submitting two applications.
In the situation that both your applications score highly for the Saturday competition in the same category, the selection team will only offer one spot to each performer (or group). And similarly, should both your applications be considered for the Thursday showcase, only one will be accepted. And remember, the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender celebrates burlesque in all forms! Neo or classic, what you submit is what the audience sees on the big stage.
Thank you for reading! We hope this information will help you with your application and your planning for Weekender 2014. Keep up on all the latest Weekender information by following us on Twitter, liking us on our Facebook page, and bookmarking our website.
— Joyce Tang, Executive Producer of BHoF Weekend
PS. If you are interested in joining the production team, a year-round volunteer commitment, please contact us and let us know your skills!
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