Last week we traveled to Minneapolis, MN for an amazing event – The Minneapolis Burlesque Festival. It was held from Thursday October 5 through Saturday October 7, with 2 shows per night and burlesque classes during the day. Most of the shows were held at The Lab Theater in the Minneapolis Warehouse District – a whole section of town filled with warehouses that have been transformed into hip venues, bars, and condos. The second show on Thursday night was at Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Downtown.
We were lucky to catch the first show on Thursday night which featured performances alongside live music by The Southside Aces. They’re a New Orleans style jazz band, and it was so cool to see the dancers interact with the band and perform their acts with live accompaniment. There’s something special about a sequined bra swinging from a trombone slide while the band plays. Also, great job by the Southside Aces – it turns out burlesque is substantially improved by a trumpet player making overstated facial expressions while clothes fly around the room. Also, who knew a person could look cool while playing the tuba?
During the day, we locked ourselves in the hotel room and spent every minute working on our upcoming release – Dollface Vintage by Cherry Dollface. We’re coming up on the deadline, so we’ve been busy focusing on finishing the design work. It’s all about vintage lifestyle instruction, and Cherry’s got such a fun disposition that we’re going all out on quirky vintage design elements. We may even post some sneak peeks just for Steemit in a few days. The only time we got out of the room other than the burlesque shows was for daily breakfast at the Hen House Diner. It’s a great place for coffee, eggs, toast, and a giant cinnamon roll to take back to your hotel to eat when your brain turns to mush from staring at a computer for too long.
All tuckered out after a long day of designing
Because we’re always trying to work with other great organizations and support the arts community, we decided to be sponsors of the Burlesque Festival. As part of our sponsorship we had an ad in the program, ads broadcast onto the wall before each show, and mentions by the MC during every show. They even sold our books at their vendor booth, which meant we got to relax and enjoy the show! It was a very worthwhile sponsorship and we are so happy to be part of such a great event.
Before leaving town on Sunday, we did one of our favorite things in the world – Brunch at Triple Rock Social Club. There’s not a trip into Minneapolis that doesn’t involve a meal there for us.