Vancouver International Burlesque Festival Celebrates Two Decades of Showgirlship

Over the last 20 years, Vancouver’s International Burlesque Festival has evolved into the longest-running and one of the most well-known burlesque scenes in the country.

Established in 2006, the festival has presented at least 60 nights of programming and three live showcases. In the festival’s earlier years, multiple showcases were co-produced with local collectives, along with off-season and fundraising events. Aside from a 2020 cancellation due to the pandemic and a virtual edition in 2021, the show has consistently gone on, only garnering more interest as the years go by.

“Vancouver’s International Burlesque Festival has always stood out as a bastion where the best, the brightest and the undiscovered, the varied, have an opportunity to show their craft,” says the festival’s artistic director, Androsia Wilde.

To celebrate two decades in the business, headliners for the VIBF’s 20th anniversary festival are Cherry on Top and Aquarius Moon, who Wilde says are two incredible trailblazers in the local and global burlesque industry.

Co-founder of the festival, Cherry on Top is “a dynamo of an individual,” Wilde says. A mother of two, Cherry on Top has been in the Vancouver burlesque scene since 2003, also having performed on the largest stages of Las Vegas. 

“She is someone who has kind of been everywhere, not just globally, but in the scene.” said Wilde, noting how Cherry was a Top 10 Canadian Performer in the 20th Century Burlesque Digital Magazine and Archive’s Burlesque Top 50. 

Aquarius Moon, hailing from Washington, D.C., is another stalwart of the group headlining the anniversary show.

“Watching her meteoric rise in just a small couple of years has been absolutely crazy,” says Wild.

Aquarius Moon was in the VIBF as one of their first virtual vaudeville participants in 2023, debuting on the Burlesque Top 50 list at number six globally, on top of earning the title of Las Vegas’ Sin City Queen and the 2025 Monarch of Imperial Burlesque in Montreal. 

Aquarius Moon’s performance comes on the heels of a European tour earlier this year, plus curating Every(body) Wants To Be a Showgirl exhibition at Dupont Underground in Washington, D.C. 

Cherry on Top and Aquarius Moon were no-brainers when it came to selecting headliners, Wilde confirms. 

“I want someone who is emblematic of the history of our local scene and everything that has been accomplished: Cherry on Top but I also want to continue ensuring that different perspectives, different vantage points are always being told, and you can’t get much better than a trailblazer like Aquarius,” she says.

As Wilde says, VIBF showcases “the bright, the brilliant, the colourful, the dazzling”, with unique performances by an incredibly diverse group.

Vancouver International Burlesque Festival runs from March 31 to April 5 at various venues, including free shows, such as “The Diamonds in the Buff” on March 31 and Tit Talks on April 1. Galas and workshops are on the agenda, too.

Early bird tickets can be found here.