Festival of Fools Program Guide, 2022

On behalf of the City of Burlington, I am pleased to welcome you to the 15th anniversary of the festival.

Our City team has worked hard to pull together some amazing talent for our three-day celebration. We have dozens of street performers and musical acts, as well as a variety of special events. In all, there will be more than 100 free performances.

Once again, I’d like to thank Burlington City Arts, which does an outstanding job producing this festival and so many other exciting summer events in Burlington’s downtown.

Warmly,

Miro Weinberger Mayor, City of Burlington

Our City is more than just a place where people live and work. Burlington truly comes to life through great events like the Festival of Fools.

15 YEARS OF FOOLISHNESS?

We blinked and somehow the motley festival that we put together in 2007 has grown into the most fun-inspired weekend in Burlington.

We couldn’t do it without you, our ridiculously enthusiastic crowds and sponsors, or without the support of the Church Street Marketplace and BCA’s overarching mission to spark artistic joy. As a reminder, this is how this weekend works: there are shows at performance pitches up and down Church Street and in City Hall Park. Shows start roughly on the hour, with shows in the park and on the top block starting on the half-hour. That’s 119 shows over three days!

All of this great fun is free, but tipping is encouraged—show us, them, and everyone else your love. Many shows are participatory, so don’t be afraid to jump in the ring and show your foolish side. Let’s do this Burlington!

FRIDAY, 9 PM

SATURDAY, 8:30 PM

WILLIE WATSON

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

In the event of inclement weather, performances will be paused and/or canceled. When the weather clears, we will restart our performances outside. In the event of a complete rain-out, we will move select programs into Contois Auditorium and other indoor locations. Please visit vtfools.com, consult our Festival App, or visit our information booths for real-time updates during the festival.

FRIDAY, AUG 5

12-10pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

12:30pm | City Hall Park

BCA SUMMER CONCERT SERIES DADDYLONGLEGS

3 pm | Community Bank Pitch

SCHOOL OF FOOLERY SHOWCASE

3 pm | AARP Pitch

DITRANI BROTHERS

4 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch

MONSIEUR PERINÉ

4 pm | City Hall Park

SPLASH DANCE: DJ CRAIG MITCHELL

5:30 pm | Church Street

KICKOFF PARADE

6 pm | Leunig’s Pitch BARIKA

6-10 pm | Hendrick’s Gin Pitch

NEPTUNE LOUNGE

7:30 pm | City Hall Park

TWILIGHT SERIES:

MONSIEUR PERINÉ

8 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

DITRANI BROTHERS

9 pm | Nectar’s VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ WITH BARIKA

SATURDAY, AUG 6

11 am-10 pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

1 pm | City Hall Park

SPLASH DANCE: DJ ANDY KERSHAW

1 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ

3 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch

WILLIE WATSON

5 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch WILD LEEK RIVER

6-10 pm | Hendrick’s Gin Pitch NEPTUNE LOUNGE

6:30 pm | City Hall Park

TWILIGHT SERIES: SAINT MELA WITH AQUAMOSSA

7 pm | Leunig’s Pitch

WILLIE WATSON

8 pm | Leunig’s Pitch BEG, STEAL OR BORROW

8:30 pm | Nectar’s WILLIE WATSON WITH WILD LEEK RIVER AND BEG, STEAL OR BORROW

ALL PERFORMANCS AND ACTIVITES ARE FREE UNLESS OTHERWISE N

SUNDAY, AUG 7

10 am | City Hall Park

MORNING CLASSIC WITH ECLECTICA

11 am-6 pm

BUSKING ON CHURCH STREET & CITY HALL PARK

1 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch SAINT MELA

1-4 pm | City Hall Park

SERIOUSLY SILLY CIRCUS

3 pm | Queen City Brewery Pitch SOGGY PO’ BOYS

5 pm | Leunig’s Pitch SOGGY PO’ BOYS

5:30 pm | City Hall Park

THE HOKUM BROTHERS

6 pm | City Hall Park

THE LAST LAUGH VARIETY SHOW

BUSKING SCHEDULES are announced the week of the Festival. Check our chalk board in front of BCA. Don’t forget to download our app for most up-todate festival schedule!

RESTROOMS

NEPTUNE LOUNGE

RESTROOMS

AARP PITCH

LEUNIG’S PITCH

COMMUNITY BANK PITCH

HENDRICK’S PITCH

QUEEN CITY BREWERY PITCH

CITY HALL PARK

PET FOOD WAREHOUSE PITCH

FESTIVAL KICKOFF

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 5:30 PM, CHURCH STEET

No floats or baton-twirling here—we’re stripping this Festival kickoff parade down to the core FUN-damentals. Featuring the syncopated sensations of Brass Balagan, the incredible puppetry of Big Nazo, our astounding line-up of street performers, and the staff and families of our presenting sponsor, Community Bank N.A., this event will march us right into position for a weekend of jubilation and joy. We’ll start in City Hall Park and end at the top block of Church Street.

EVENTS SPECIAL

MORNING CLASSIC

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 10-11 AM, CITY HALL PARK

Join Vermont-based string quartet Eclectica for a morning of classical music in the park. The quartet’s eclectic programs probe the creative intersection between classical and traditional music while highlighting new compositions that use the string quartet in unusual ways. Violinists Sofia Hirsch and Laura Markowitz, violist Ana Ruesink, and cellist John Dunlop share their musical explorations in concert settings as varied as libraries, nursing homes, backyards, filmhouses, churches, concert halls, and barns. They’re delighted to be back on the Festival of Fools stage once again.

NEPTUNE LOUNGE

FRI & SAT, AUGUST 5-6, 6-10 PM, CHURCH ST.

To celebrate our 15th anniversary in style, we’re creating a dinner, drinking, and dancing paradise on the top block of Church Street. Working with Halvorson’s Upstreet Café and Hendrick’s Gin, the lounge offers our frolicking fans a place to relax, take in a show, dance, and have a great meal (bonus points for doing all of these at once).

THE LAST LAUGH VARIETY SHOW

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 6 PM, CITY HALL PARK

Drop the curtain on this weekend of wonderment with The Last Laugh. This variety show is a final mad dash of vignettes in which each performer from our weekend roster shows us their best stuff. Never rehearsed, never recreated. Though it may be hard to say goodbye, it’s good to go out laughing. See you in 2023!

PERFORMERS AQUAMOSSA

Aquamossa is an ethereal electric pop ensemble from Burlington, VT. Born from a mission of dissolving the separate worlds of music and dance, the group performs their live show as a cohesive spirit, blending synthscapes and soulful melodies with evocative movement. With frequent sit-ins, guest appearances, and a variety of dance styles including pole and contemporary movement, their live show is a truly unique and exciting experience not to be missed.

SATURDAY: CITY HALL PARK, 6:30 PM

BARIKA

Eureka—we’ve booked Barika! This tremendous group of Burlington-area musicians performs what they call “indie/ polyrhythmic ethereal dub-scaped soaked in psychedelic, West-African resonance.” Got that? Their dancy grooves and wicked melodies are always a blast.

FRIDAY: CHURCH STREET, 6 PM

FRIDAY: NECATR’S, 9 PM

Beg, Steal or Borrow is on a mission to resurrect the music of the iconic bluegrass band Old and In the Way. Known for their warm harmonies, virtuosic instrumentals, and tight musical interplay, the Vermont quintet continues to perform on the heels of its celebrated debut album of original music, Old Mountain Time. We’re giddy to have them beg, steal, and borrow on Church Street for this, their first Festival of Fools.

SATURDAY: CHURCH STREET, 8 PM

SATURDAY: NECTAR’S, 8:30 PM

If you see a renegade circus family of contortionists, a rowdy rodeo horse, a giant three-eyed robot percussionist, break-dancing police officers, Mountain Trolls, blob-like GOGO Dancers, a charismatic lab rat and his giant man-eating chia pet, Big Nazo must be back in town. This international performance group of visual artists, puppet performers, and masked musicians unite to create bizarre and hilarious largerthan-life-sized characters, environments, and spectacles.

FRIDAY: CHURCH STREET PARADE, 5:30 PM

BEG, STEAL OR BORROW BIG NAZO BRASS BALAGAN

You say brass, we say Balagan. The quintessential BTV street band marches up Church Street in the Foolish Parade on Friday, at 5:30 pm. Donned in their signature red suits and blaring their horns, the band trumpets in the opening of festivities as other performers and festival friends accompany the procession.

DITRANI BROTHERS

Brattleboro’s DiTrani Brothers play original and traditional tunes drawing influence from western and Eastern-European folk music, Roma swing, and early American jazz and ragtime. Behold their raucous Church Street performance, in which they allude to past traditions with a contemporary sentiment.

FRIDAY: CHURCH STREET, 3 AND 8 PM

EL GLENO GRANDE FLIP

Is that a full-grown man riding a pretend horse? Yup, that’s El Gleno Grande, cantering back to Burlington for the first time since 2015. El Gleno is Glenn Singer, who is never at a loss to achieve small things in magnificent ways. On the way to a career in theater, he was sidetracked by street performance and never came back. Glenn performs both on the street and at Club Neptune.

The fantastic FLiP family returns! Last seen here in 2019, this family of acrobats runs a cirque school in Quebec. They’ll teach us a few things about gravity—and how to completely defy it—during their Church Street performances. Check the schedule for exact times, or just look high in the sky.

JOE ORRACH

Joe Orrach is okay with being referred to as a “pugilistic hoofer.” Beginning his career as a boxer before turning to tap dancing, Joe has danced with some of the best. He’s even appeared in movies such as Cop Land and Everyone Says I Love You. And with the Joe Orrach Performance Project, Joe reaches hundreds of students with programs to help them tell their own stories through rhythm, movement, and voice.

JOSETTE LÉPINE

Who could forget the Kif Kif Sisters and their large pink balloons? We certainly can’t. Sister Josette Lépine is flying solo this time around with her new show, The Billy-Croquettes. With themes of twinship and interconnectivity central to her art, Josette creates her own multidisciplinary acts that feature playful and enveloping atmospheres. Catch her on Church Street, where she’ll be performing all weekend!

MIKE WOOD

Look out for flying cabbages; Mike Wood is back in Burlington. Combining two of Canada’s main exports, comedy and natural resources, Mike is a comedian with a degree in mine engineering. He’s been making people laugh since 1994, combining his comedy and engineering careers into a clever balancing act that includes his vaunted “Catapulted Cabbage Catch.” Catch Mike’s show, and maybe his cabbages, all weekend on Church Street.

MODERN TIMES THEATER

Modern Times Theater goes big for our 15th festival. The husband-and-wife Bread and Puppet alums have been adapting and updating Punch and Judy puppet shows, creating vaudeville acts, and writing original novelty songs for over a decade. They pursue a radically divergent model of art-making, creating venues in unlikely locations and interacting with historic places.

M

ONSIEUR PERINÉ

This is really unbelievable, but Colombian stars Monsieur Periné really are coming to the Festival of Fools! This musical ensemble meets at the intersection of pop, jazz, and rock, led by highly-charismatic and multilingual singer Catalina Garcia. In 2015, their album Caja de Musica won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist. The band’s latest album, Encanto Tropical, was nominated for a Grammy, and their single “Nuestra Cancion” recently went viral, hitting #1 on the TikTok US chart with more than two billion views.

FRIDAY: QUEEN CITY BREWERY PITCH, 4 PM CITY HALL PARK, 7:30 PM

MUTTS GONE NUTS

Fools has gone to the dogs! Imagine nine of the world’s most talented four-legged performers in an uproariously funny dog spectacular and you get Mutts Gone Nuts! Having been unleashed on stages from Tokyo to Las Vegas, 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 dogs that will dance, prance, flip, and skip their way right into your heart. All of Mutts Gone Nuts’ dogs were adopted from shelters or are rescues living the good life. Sometimes the very behavior that drove the previous owner to relinquish the dog becomes the dog’s star quality, and that’s true with all of us Fools, right?

PETER PANIC

Don’t panic, but do watch Peter Panic. Since 1981, Peter has delighted audiences with his juggling in all 50 states and well beyond. He’ll be out on Church Street tossing just about everything up in the air. Check the schedule for exact times and locations!

THE RED TROUSER SHOW

High energy acrobatics; head-spinning juggling techniques; sidesplitting comedy; and yes, red trousers. This duo has been performing in circuses, at theaters, and busking in the streets all over the world since 2000. After starting out in Vermont’s Circus Smirkus, the pair have been called “a spectacular and unique act” by the Midnight Circus, and “Amazing Acrobats” by ABC News. We are thrilled to have them and their trousers back with us all weekend on Church Street.

SAINT MELA

With a penchant for innovative sounds, inventive melodies, and a wide range of influences, Saint Mela keeps the crowd dancing, feeling, and engaged.

SATURDAY: CITY HALL PARK, 6:30 PM

SUNDAY: CHURCH STREET, 1 PM

SARA TWISTER

Born in India and raised on four continents, Sara Schmidt, a.k.a Sara Twister, couldn’t really say where she comes from. What she *could* say is that becoming a globe-trotting professional attention-seeker was entirely inevitable. After a whole lot of willful determination and focused training in the art of contortion, Sara became the entertainer she is today by spending years focusing on the art of street performing, with a specific dedication to mastering acrobatic archery. Catch her slinging arrows, bending body parts that shouldn’t be bent, and walking upside down on Church Street.

SHARON MAHONE

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Meet Sharon, your typical Canadian: polite, patriotic, politically correct, and extremely passive-aggressive. But with a little “help” from the audience, Sharon transforms into her more direct and domineering counterpart, Miss Talulah, who shows just what being a libertine is all about.

Sharon is an award-winning comedian, actress, and street performer who has traveled the globe for nearly 20 years, performing at world-class festivals and comedy clubs. We’re pleased she’s returning to Festival of Fools for the second year in a row.

SERIOUSLY SILLY CIRCUS

Let’s get serious…ly silly. With mindfulness and clowning as ingredients, these folks have cooked up a medley of meaning, laughter, and joy. Join us in their Seriously Silly zone for goofy-but-effective meditations, interactive play, photo ops, juggling, and generally wacky, weird, and wise antics.

SUNDAY: CITY HALL PARK, 1-4 PM

SNAP BOOGIE

A Bostonian who has taken his high-energy, street-style, one-man solo show to audiences around the globe, Snap Boogie has performed in front of millions on America’s Got Talent. He made his way to the big screen alongside Steve Carrel and Maya Rudolph in The Way Way Back, performs at NBA half-time shows, and competes regularly in international dance battles. Snap flipped our wigs at Fools in 2016 and 2017, and we’re stoked he’s back to do it again.

SOGGY PO’ BOYS

Born on a snowy Fat Tuesday night, the Soggy Po’ Boys have been honing their craft of New Orleans music since 2012. The New Hampshire-based but New Orleans-flavored septet performs more than a hundred shows every year, from festivals and concerts to burlesque shows and street parades. The band serves their jazz messy, mixing brass-fueled mayhem with spirituals, Meters-style old-school funk, and the Caribbean side of the New Orleans tradition.

SUNDAY: CHURCH STREET, 3 AND 5 PM

TWO

FOOLS AND A MULE

True masters of mayhem and veterans of the screen, stage, and street, Tino, Gleno, and Woodhead (Joe Orrach, Glenn Singer, and Woody Keppel) are together again at the Neptune Lounge! Join our hosts and their all-star revue of vaudeville kitsch and musical glitz. Things kick into gear on Friday and Saturday nights, with a cavalcade of foolishness, dance, slapstick, and music. These guys are outlandish enough on their own; we can’t imagine what will happen when they’re together!

FRIDAY: NEPTUNE LOUNGE, 6-10 PM

SATURDAY: NEPTUNE LOUNGE, 6-10 PM

VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ

The son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, Vieux pays homage to his father and follows Ali’s musical tradition, giving new versions of West African music that is echoed in the American blues. Vieux is known for dazzling crowds with his speed and dexterity on the guitar, as well as his palpable charisma.

FRIDAY: NECTAR’S, 9 PM

SATURDAY: CHURCH STREET, 1 PM

WILLIE WATSON

For over two decades, Willie Watson has made modern folk music rooted in older traditions. He’s a folksinger in the classic sense: a singer, storyteller, and traveler, with a catalog of songs that bridge the gap between the past and present. From his early days as a founding member of the Old Crow Medicine Show to his current work as a solo artist, he is a celebrated musician with a rich vocal range, a top interpreter of the folk canon, and a highly skilled multi-instrumentalist.

SATURDAY: CHURCH STREET, 3 AND 7 PM

SATURDAY: NECTARS, 8:30 PM

WILD LEEK RIVER

Hailing from Northern Vermont, Wild Leek River is a five-piece country band with a style that traces back to bygone honkytonks. Known for their rowdy shows across Vermont and beyond, the group released their first LP in 2021, and has another in the works.

SATURDAY: CHURCH STREET, 5 PM

SATURDAY: NECTARS 8:30 PM

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, Kiah Powell-Francis

Operations Leads: Andrew Bacher, Mark Balderston, Eduard Van Osterom

Street Audio and Street Operations: BCA Event Staff

Catering: Tree Top Kitchen

Security: Chocolate Thunder Security

BURLINGTON CITY 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

168 Battery St #1, Burlington, VT 05401