Vermont Burlesque Festival’s 2026 Granite City Showcase “Encore! Encore!” SELLS OUT
- Luke Warm
- Jan 16
- 2 min read
BARRE & MONTPELIER, VT — After several turbulent years navigating the post-COVID live events landscape, the Vermont Burlesque Festival (VTBF) is celebrating an unexpected and deeply meaningful milestone: the 2026 Granite City Showcase: Encore! Encore! scheduled for January 23rd at the Barre Opera House has officially sold out one week before the doors open.
VTBF faced significant challenges following the pandemic. Attendance fluctuations, rising production costs, increasing venue expenses, and a public reluctancy to go downtown — particularly in the Burlington area — made sustaining the festival increasingly difficult. By January 2025, the festival’s 12th year, producers openly acknowledged that it might be VTBF’s final chapter.
That outlook held through much of 2025 — until something changed.
In August 2025, an outpouring of encouragement from longtime followers, artists, and community partners, coupled with strong support from the Barre Opera House itself, prompted festival leadership to reconsider. The message was clear: this festival still mattered and people wanted it back.
“It was our community that brought us back,” said Festival Director Cory Royer. “When people started asking for the show again — and the Barre Opera House encouraged us to keep going — it became obvious that this wasn’t the end. It was time for an encore.”
From that moment, the theme for VTBF2026 “Encore! Encore!” was born.
Festival producers made a deliberate decision to move forward with a slimmed-down, more focused festival, concentrating all programming in Central Vermont — specifically the Capital Region, Barre, and Montpelier — allowing the festival to remain sustainable while preserving the heart, quality, and creativity audiences have come to expect.
The result: a sold-out showcase and a renewed sense of momentum for one of New England’s most celebrated live arts events.
The Vermont Burlesque Festival extends heartfelt thanks to its audiences, performers, sponsors, venues, and collaborators who helped make this revival possible. What once felt like a final bow has instead become a standing ovation.
For additional information and future announcements, visitwww.vermontburlesquefest.com | Contact: Cory Royer 702-289-2200
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