An Announcement from the Kansas City Nerdlesque Festival

Dear friends, fans, and performers. We sadly must inform you that The 2022 Kansas City Nerdlesque Festival is canceled indefinitely. Personal and environmental circumstances arose that have compromised our ability to prepare and put on the festival this year. Still, first and foremost, our regret is the impact this news will have on you, the performers we invited to perform. We did not come to this decision lightly and are devastated that we cannot meet the challenges we face attempting to put together the festival this year. We have reached out to the performers impacted via e-mail with mostly the same information.

We know that whether or not the following are interpreted as excuses or reasons, you deserve to know why we came to this difficult decision.

During the last two years since we postponed the 2020 Kansas City Nerdlesque Festival, the pandemic has added several challenges that we as an organization cannot overcome. The community landscape has changed. New variants of COVID-19 are constantly popping up. Travel costs have increased significantly. Performers we invited to the 2020 festival have also faced these same challenges and lifestyle shifts, leading some to drop out of the rescheduled festival (which we 100% understand!)

We love our community. This year, we have a significantly smaller pool of volunteers, sponsors, and staff available to help. We are two people who have been wearing a dozen hats this past year in the runup to August. The community momentum we had in 2018 and 2019 has diminished significantly. We cannot in good conscience promote a festival that must promise less security, less housing, and less travel assistance to the performers. We are not interested in taking steps back in quality to be able to put another jewel in our crowns.

Both of us have been working through mental health, physical health, and financial issues that have decreased the time and energy we have available to put the necessary work into producing the festival. We are exhausted. We spoke Saturday in what was not intended to be a production meeting, and we almost immediately recognized the burnout and emotional exhaustion in each other.

We know that this is a blow to everyone who intended to perform at the festival. We sincerely apologize for the disappointment this news will bring. We did everything we could to keep this festival on schedule—until we were faced with our diminished capabilities to provide.

Our sister festival, The Ohio Burlesque Festival, has graciously offered to take in some in their burlesque festival instead. We are in their debt. If you are a performer accepted into KCNF, please check your e-mail for information on how to accept this offer.

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or grievances, we will do our best to make things right. Again, we are tremendously sorry that you had to receive this. We feel terrible about this, and we hope you can forgive us in time.

If you have performed at, volunteered with, or attended the Kansas City Nerdlesque Festival, we truly appreciate and have a tremendous amount of gratitude for helping to bring this event to life in Kansas City. We love you.

Yours,
Annie-Mae Allure, Executive Producer
Basic Boy, Associate Producer