The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny

Created in 2014, with it's inaugural run in 2015, The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny is the only large-scale gathering of sideshow performers, producers, and fans currently happening in the Southern United States. It takes place every year in late winter in the great city of New Orleans to offer our Northern brethren a break from dark, frigid days, as well as to give performers a chance to brush up

on their skills and dust off and polish acts before the start of touring season. The goals of The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny are:
*to celebrate the great American art form of sideshow
*to foster growth in the community and among individual performers through workshops, panels, peer review, and one-on-one consultations with some of the top performers and producers
*to educate the general public about sideshow, it's history, and traditions
*to have a damn good time with some of the most entertaining folks you'll ever meet! The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny is the first large-scale gathering of sideshow performers from all across the United States and Canada to happen in New Orleans. The idea to do such a gathering came to Kali von Wunderkammer (Producer of Freaksheaux to Geaux, Storyville Rising, and Kali's Cabinet of Curiosities) in early 2014 as she watched many of her northern performer friends suffering through the bitter cold of the so-called Polar Vortex. She thought it would be a good idea to give people a late winter chance to come down south and get some sunshine while also enjoying each others' company and polishing new acts before touring season starts. She casually threw the idea out and too many people got too excited about the prospect for her not to follow through! So she set the date for February 27th - March 1st and got to planning! The weekend will include workshops so show people can fine tune their skills and learn new ones, lectures and panels about sideshow history for performers and the public and (of course) shows!