Festival of Fools Program Guide, 2023

On behalf of the City, welcome back to the Festival of Fools, celebrating its 16th year of entertaining community members and visitors alike.

There’s nothing quite like a Festival of Fools weekend, with musicians, buskers, circus performers, and comedians enlivening Church Street and City Hall Park.

Burlington’s national reputation as a beacon for the arts helps us draw some of the talent we’re presenting at the festival this year, including Grammy-nominated musicians Lido Pimienta and Cha Wa, among the many buskers and performers from all over the world.

I hope you’ll join me in the kickoff parade on Friday at 5:30 pm! We’ll start at the top of Church Street and head down toward City Hall.

This joyful festival is a yearly reminder of how incredibly passionate Burlingtonians are about live performance, community engagement, and unbound creativity.

I look forward to celebrating with you!

Miro Weinberger — Mayor, City of Burlington

Let’s Get Foolsical!

Here’s how it works:

All performances are outside on Church Street and in City Hall Park. While the performances are free to watch, tipping is certainly appreciated.

At the Leunig’s and AARP pitches, performances are scheduled on the hour; at the von Trapp Brewing and Community Bank pitches, performances are on the half-hour. Exact performance schedules are available at the info both as well as on the BCA Events app and vtfools.org (beginning July 31). Shows that happen only once or twice are listed in the Schedule at-a-Glance in this guide.

Thank you SO MUCH for celebrating with us. Be sure to support our beloved local shops and restaurants as you wander, and be DOUBLE sure to have an amazing time enjoying the art of live performance with your families, friends, and neighbors.

Schedule at-a-Glance

In the event of inclement weather, performances will be paused and/or canceled. When the weather clears, we will continue performances following the published schedules. Missed shows are generally not possible to re-schedule. In the event of a complete rain out, some performances may be moved into Contois Auditorium. Please visit vtfools.org, consult our BCA Events App, or visit our information tent for real-time updates during the festival.

Friday, AUG 4

12-10 pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

12:30 pm | City Hall Park

BCA SUMMER CONCERT SERIES:

DITRANI BROTHERS

2:30 pm | Community Bank Pitch

SCHOOL OF FOOLERY SHOWCASE

2 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

JACK BROADBENT

3:30 pm | von Trapp Brewing Pitch

CHA WA

4 pm | City Hall Park

SPLASH DANCE: DJ CRAIG MITCHELL

5-10 pm | Hendrick’s Gin & Switchback Brewing Co. Pitch TOP BLOCK CABARET

5:30 pm | Church Street

KICKOFF PARADE

6 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

MIKAHELY

6:30 pm | City Hall Park

BCA TWILIGHT SERIES: JACK BROADBENT

7:30 pm | City Hall Park

BCA TWILIGHT SERIES:

LIDO PIMIENTA

8 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

JACK BROADBENT

8:30 pm | Hendrick’s Gin & Switchback Brewing Co. Pitch

HAPPY SPANGLER

Saturday, AUG 5

11 am-10:30 pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

11 am-3 pm | City Hall Park

BCA & LOVE BURINGTON’S BTV MARKET

1 pm | City Hall Park

SPLASH DANCE: DJ CRWD CNTRL

1 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

JACK BROADBENT

2:30 pm | von Trapp Brewing Pitch

CHA WA

4:30 pm | von Trapp Brewing Pitch

BANDITS ON THE RUN

6 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

BANDITS ON THE RUN

7:30 pm | City Hall Park

BCA TWILIGHT SERIES: CHA WA

8:30pm | Hendrick’s Gin & Switchback Brewing Co. Pitch MAD

Sunday, Aug 6

10 am | City Hall Park

BCA’S SUNDAY CLASSICAL: VSO’S SITKA TRIO

11 am – 5 pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

12:30 pm | von Trapp Brewing Pitch

BANDITS ON THE RUN

5 pm | City Hall Park

THE HOKUM BROTHERS

5:30 pm | City Hall Park

THE LAST LAUGH VARIETY SHOW

BUSKING SCHEDULES

will be posted on our website and app by July 31st. During the Festival, we will have daily schedules available as handouts at our information tent and on our famous chalk board in front of the BCA Center.

Download our Fools App here!

RESTROOMS

RESTROOMS

AARP PITCH

LEUNIG’S PITCH

COMMUNITY BANK PITCH

VON TRAPP BREWING PITCH

CITY HALL PARK

PET FOOD WAREHOUSE PITCH

THE HENDRICK’S GIN AND SWITCHBACK BREWING CO. TOP BLOCK CABARET

SpecialEvents

Kickoff Parade

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 5:30 PM, CHURCH ST.

A kickoff parade that happens AFTER the festival has already started? Very foolish, but that’s how we stroll. Join Cha Wa and other Festival performers alongside friends and staff of BCA as we head down Church Street in a musical mob of merrymaking. This New Orleans-style second line parade meets on the top block and ends in front of City Hall, where Cha Wa will keep the tunes going as we get the weekend started.

The Hendrick’s Gin and Switchback Brewing Co. Top Block Cabaret

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 & 5, 5-10 PM, CHURCH ST.

Kick back with food and drinks from Halverson’s Upstreet Cafe as you take in a classic cabaret show. With the fabulously funny and mystically mysterious Madame Zazou as your host, enjoy an evening of performances from various Fools. At 8:30, the night takes a musical detour with jangle poppers Happy Spangler performing on Friday and theatrical synth rockers MAD taking the stage on Saturday.

Twilight Series

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 6:30 PM AND SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 7:30 PM, CITY HALL PARK

The Festival of Fools takes over BCA’s summer-long Twilight Series concerts for two of the most monumental— and completely free—concerts of the summer. On Friday, musical globetrotter Lido Pimienta and her band perform their multitextural, space-time-bending take on Afro-and Indigenous traditions. British songwriter Jack Broadbent—whom Bootsy Collins called “the real thang”—opens the show. On Saturday, behold Cha Wa, one of the New Orleansiest bands to come from New Orleans in recent years.

Sunday Classical

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 10 AM, CITY HALL PARK

This special edition of BCA’s Sunday Classical series features a spirited performance by the Sitka Trio. Vermont Symphony Orchestra members Brooke Quiggins, John Dunlop, and Stefanie Taylor perform a program of folk-inspired music by Bartok, Borodin, Dohnanyi, Adolphus Hailstork, and Mark O’Connor, as well as familiar favorites by Scott Joplin.

The Last Laugh Variety Show

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 5:30 PM, CITY HALL PARK

Bid the Fools adieu with a last laugh or two. This beloved FoF tradition closes out the weekend with a series of vignettes featuring your favorite performers—completely unrehearsed and hilariously unhinged. Expect the astoundingly unexpected as our house band, the Hokum Brothers, provides the soundtrack to this final curtain call.

Bandits on the Run

Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the New York City subways, Bandits on the Run is a Brooklyn-based musical trio featuring Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn. The group has earned accolades from NPR’s All Songs Considered and Weekend Edition as well as American Songwriter. After releasing their EP Now Is the Time, in 2020, the band produced a musical film, composed the music for the Netflix children’s series Storybots, and provided the soundtrack to the movie The Same Storm. This is their first Festival of Fools, and we are thrilled to welcome them to Burlington!

The Billy-croquettes

A show we’ve been trying to present for years! The Billy-croquettes is the solo project of Josette Lépine, half of Fools favorites The Kif-Kif Sisters. In this micro-circus composed of an accordionist and her mechanical animals, the toys gain autonomy to become as endearing as they are unpredictable. Physical theater, music, humor, and puppetry come together in this stunningly fun story of disobedient machines.

Cate Great

Fools is thrilled to welcome back Cate Great, an astounding acrobatic wonder. Her all-ages comedy and otherworldly skills have kept us hooked and wanting more since she was last here in 2018. Cate inspires the inner child in all of her audiences. Each year, she travels the world to transform public spaces into spectacular celebrations. Get ready, Church Street!

Cha Wa

Church Street becomes Bourbon Street as New Orleans brass band/ Mardi Gras Indian group Cha Wa trades the Mississippi for Lake Champlain. In their ultra-special Festival of Fools appearance, the band transports us with three stage shows and adds a most-welcome dash of New Orleans second line spice to the kickoff parade. Described by Paste magazine as “the future of New Orleans music,” Cha Wa is a Grammy-nominated force of nature, distilling generations of joy and explosive expression.

Circus Smirkus Presents the Smirkus Camp Road Show

Breaking out of the big top and larger than life, The Smirkus Camp Road Show presents a special celebration of circus arts. Behold Smirkus Camp teens defying the expected in this amazing exhibition of flipping, flying, juggling, and more. We’re so lucky to partner with Vermont’s renowned Circus Smirkus on this new collaboration. Don’t miss out!

Galumpha

Combining stunning acrobatics, physical comedy, and inventive choreography, Galumpha brings their world of imagination back to Burlington. Last here in 2016, the three performers create a sensory feast of images ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. A triumphant mix of art and entertainment, Galumpha offers award-winning choreography that will leave audiences entranced for days.

Garaghty & Thom Street Comedy

Circus trickery, improvisation, and comedy mix in this high-octane spectacle of hilarity and wit. Richard Garaghty and Goronwy Thom amaze and amuse as they unleash their chaotic cabaret. With sets and props that come from just about anywhere, who knows what will happen when these hysterical innovators use their immediate environment and let unpredictability take the wheel.

Gravity Cirque

What’s that up there? Why it’s Gravity Cirque, stilt-walking into your wildest dreams! Rob and Jen, both recent Burlington transplants, boast a serious pedigree, with Rob’s TV credits including Water for Elephants and GLEE and live appearances with Paul McCartney and J.Lo. He also co-coordinated Cirque du Soleil’s Cirque du Monde in Los Angeles for over a decade. He now shares his expertise all over the northeast, including with top-shelf circus school Circus Smirkus.

Happy Spangler

Jangle pop, indie alt rock, and pre-punk unite in the brilliant stylings of this Burlington band of seasoned scenesters. Masterful arrangements and slyly poignant lyrics have quickly elevated Happy Spangler to the upper echelons of Vermont-grown music. They’ll start your weekend off on the right note with a top-block set of tunes. Warning: blissful head-banging may occur.

Jack Broadbent

British-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jack Broadbent found acclaim after the Montreux Jazz Festival hailed him as “the new master of the slide guitar.” Bootsy Collins famously proclaimed him “the real thang,” and he’s won over more fans touring with the likes of Ronnie Wood, Peter Frampton, and other musical legends. He now heads to Burlington for his first Fools appearance, bringing along a mixed bag of tunes and styles that comprise this consummate busker’s singularly refined oeuvre.

Lido Pimienta

Canadian-Colombian singer Lido Pimienta’s multi-textural, mind-bending voice reveals an embrace of Afro-Indigenous traditions. Her music is at once defiant, delicate, and sweetly nostalgic. We are so lucky to have this global beats trailblazer gracing the City Hall Park stage at this year’s festival, presenting songs from her new album, Miss Colombia On the record, Lido digs deep into the history of Afro-Latin music, from Palenque to cumbia, while also referencing influences such as BritishSri Lankan rapper MIA and Dominican-Trinidadian rap queen Cardi B.

MAD

Vermont’s own theatrical synth rockers are ever-amassing sonically rich and lyrically complex tunes within their eclectic catalog. Having dominated stages at ArtHop and Waking Windows, they are well-primed for Fools. So add some dancing to your agenda. We’re sure you’ll become just as mad about MAD as we are.

Madame Zazou

Cirque du Soleil alumna Madame Zazou heads south from Canada to host our Top Block Cabaret! The venerated performer is renowned not only for her incredible career traversing the globe, but for her teaching as well, passing along the art of cabaret and clowning to younger generations. In her inaugural Fools appearance, Madame Zazou shares her hilarity with Burlington audiences via a persona that the San Francisco Chronicle called “Mae West with a Quebecois accent.”

Mikahely

Mikahely is a self-taught world musician and singer/songwriter who plays guitar, the valiha—an 18-stringed bamboo Malagasy instrument— and the marovany, a Malagasy string instrument with 22 or more strings. His music is based on traditional Malagasy folk songs and lullabies, with ceremonial rhythms and healing sounds.

Mr. Crites & Woodhead

Featuring the alchemy of Rob Crites and Fools’ artistic director, Woody Keppel, Mr. Crites & Woodhead create a comic combustion of spontaneity and inventiveness reminiscent of the earliest cultural fabric of Americana known as vaudeville. Mr. Crites is a circus performer who has performed with Cirque du Soleil, toured with Paul McCartney, and appeared on Dancing With the Stars. Woodhead has been a frequent player on the European varieté circuit as well as in multiple international tours of theaters, festivals, and TV shows.

Mutts Gone Nuts

The hounds of hilarity are bark for more! Last year we introduced Fools audiences to Mutts Gone Nuts, and these sensational pups immediately ran away with the show. We knew we’d never hear the tail-end of it if we didn’t bring back this pack of the world’s most talented dogs. The all-star lineup includes the highest jumping dog in the universe, two Guinness World Champions, a hilarious six-pound Pomeranian Pikachu mix, and a host of Houndinis that will dance, prance, flip, and skip their way right into your heart. All of Mutts Gone Nuts’ dogs were adopted from shelters or from rescues and are living the good life. Come play fetch!

The Riplium Menagerie

Two seasoned performers roll into town full of pomp and circumstance, ready to present their hard-won collection of living oddities and curiosities. But what happens when the creatures of the menagerie take over the show? Filled with whimsical humor, precision juggling, and creative puppetry, the Vermont-based Riplium Menagerie is a circus show for people of all ages!

Sam Malcolm

Sam Malcolm is one of the world’s top jugglers and an award-winning performer who pairs contemporary comedy and astounding skills to delight crowds throughout the country. Growing up in Nevada on the Stillwater Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, Sam witnessed the effects of discrimination, racism, poverty, and substance abuse; he draws upon these experiences in his passion for connecting communities through performance. His love for his community and pride in his culture have been a constant motivation for him to be a positive example for the next generation.

The Silver Starlets

The Silver Starlets is an all-female aerial acrobatics show full of glam, glitz, and glitter. Using a 20-foot free-standing trapeze rig as their stage, the Starlets twist, tumble, bend, and climb, wowing enraptured audiences with their gravity-defying feats of fleet-footed finesse. But don’t let their tutus fool you—the Silver Starlets don’t sweat...they sparkle!

Tic & Tac

Fools fan-favorites Tic & Tac are back! The NYC-based acrobatic and break dance company combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their esteemed street performance. Tyheem and Kareem Barnes, known as Tic & Tac, have worked with everyone from the New York Yankees to Michael Jackson. Out to prove that “twins are people two,” the duo keeps audiences enthralled with flips and twists above the Church Street bricks.

Tom Timon

Tom Timon presents an exhibition of jitters-generating juggling, stomachtwisting sword swallowing, miraculous magic, and convivial clowning. Trekking to Vermont all the way from Berlin, Tom has worked in both traditional circuses as well as festivals and cabarets through Europe and the United States. You’ve seen busking, but not like this.

Festival of Fools Staff

Festival Director: Zach Williamson

Artistic Director & Co-Founder: Woody Keppel

Music Programming: Signal Kitchen

Event Manager: Abra Clawson

Company Manager: Madeline Bell

Street Designer: Carl Talent

Volunteer Coordination: Kyla Waldron

Operations Leads: Julia Moriarty, Mark Balderston

Street Audio and Operations: BCA Event Staff

Lighting: Liam-Bailey Rowe

Top Block Cabaret: Paddy Reagan, Lee Anderson, and Satelight Arts Productions

Catering: Jenna Giguere

Security: Chocolate Thunder Security

CityBurlington Arts Staff

Executive Director: Doreen Kraft

Assistant Director: Sara Katz

Communications Director: John Flanagan

Design Director: Ted Olson

Marketing & Sponsorship: Elena Rosen

Festival & Event Director: Zach Williamson

Event Manager: Abra Clawson

Development Director: Joyce Cellars

Development Coordinator: Meara McGinniss

Administrative Assistant: Jenna Giguere

WE’RE HAPPY TO SUPPORT THE 16th Annual Festival of Fools

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