The Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest Brings Daring Acts To The Quad Cities

Davenport was once known as "The Wickedest City in America."  Davenport’s Bucktown district rose to infamy in the early 1900s with its vibrant blend of jazz clubs, speakeasies, brothels, and boundary-pushing entertainment.

For three nights, you can relive a bit of that time period with the "Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest".

On April 16, 17, and 18, performances will be held at the Adler Theatre, Circa 21, and the Capitol Theatre.  Tickets are available for one or all three nights right here.

Wickedest Performer Competition

The curtain rises on the first night of the Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest. Join the celebration of fearless performance, radical joy, and the unapologetic spirit of Davenport’s infamous Bucktown past, where art, vice, and spectacle once thrived loud and proud. It all kicks off with a battle for the crown.

The Wickedest Performer is a competition featuring electrifying artists from across the country bringing their boldest, bawdiest, and most unforgettable acts to the stage.
Presiding over the spectacle is a panel of four iconic judges:

From sultry striptease to jaw-dropping variety acts, this night is a showcase of the daring, the decadent, and the downright unforgettable.

Fandom Showcase

Night two of the fest is the Fandom Showcase.

Step right this way, dear patrons of the peculiar, the passionate, and the perfectly strange, because Friday night, the velvet curtain parts for a spectacle unlike any other!

Welcome to the Fandom Showcase, where the nerdy, the flirty, and the fantastical collide beneath the glowing lights of the Circa ’21 Speakeasy. From pixel to page to stage, these acts are love letters to the stories that made us dreamers!

Featuring a lineup of dazzling performers from across the realm Omaha, Sioux Falls, Washington D.C and right here in the Quad Cities. This night celebrates fandom in all its forms: bold, bizarre, and beautifully burlesque.

This show isn’t about breaking the fourth wall, darling, it’s about peeling it off, one layer at a time!

Grand Showcase

If you're still standing, sparkling, and still just a little wicked, then you'll be ready for night three.

After two nights of tease, triumph, and tantalizing spectacle, the Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest closes grandly at the historic Capitol Theatre. And like any proper bill, we’re ending with a bang, a wink, and maybe just a risk or two.

Welcome to the Grand Showcase, a dazzling finale where the very best of the festival takes the stage one last time, turning up the glamour, the mischief, and the magic to their most irresistible heights.

Taking a victorious return is our freshly crowned Wickedest Performer, ready to prove that the crown sits exactly where it belongs.

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You can see more about the weekend of fun on the Wickedest City Facebook page.