Performer Booking Info

Please Note: Applications for the 2026 Festival will be accepted from September 15 through November 30, 2025.

Performer Booking Information for 2026

Thank you for your interest in Seattle’s Moisture Festival. 2026 will be our 22nd year presenting what has become the largest and longest-running variety festival in the U.S.

The dates for the 2026 festival are March 19, 2026  through April 12, 2026. Shows are presented from Thursday through Sunday for each of these four weeks.

Variety is an intriguing assortment of entertainment. Our shows present highly skilled performance mixed with unusual and bizarre talents, often humorous, and with no limit to the imagination. Aerialists, jugglers, magicians, dancers, rope acts, bubble acts, clowns, acrobats, can-can girls, strong women, strong men, tap dancers, drill teams, musicians, the weird and wonderful—all keeping the tradition of Variety and Vaudeville alive. Presented as a variety show, each act or artist performs their routine within a 4–8-minute time slot and can be accompanied by a live show band.

To be clear, the Moisture Festival is not a music festival, an arts festival, a dance festival, a theater festival, a busker’s festival, or a fringe festival. Seattle’s Moisture Festival is a variety festival. In each show, we book 8-10 acts into a variety show, complete with a host and a live show band. Most acts perform for 4 to 8 minutes.

If you are interested in performing at the 2026 Moisture Festival, please review the information on this page carefully to make sure that it is something that you would like to participate in, and that the festival is a good fit for your act.

All festival performers need to be able to work legally in the USA. Moisture Festival is unable to sponsor work visas for the 2026 festival.

Each year we invite some old friends to return and invite some new artists to join us. We do not book individuals or groups to do full shows. Our hope is to only book performers whom the organizers or their associates have personally seen in live performance. However, in the interest of real variety, we save slots for performers with whom we are not yet familiar.

How the Money Works

Please don’t approach this as a money-making booking because THERE IS NO FINANCIAL GUARANTEE. The Moisture Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and the festival operates financially as a performers’ cooperative, with each performer receiving one share for each show in which they perform. Some acts may perform once and receive 1 share, while others may perform ten times and thus receive 10 shares. Over the years, the value of each share has varied between $25 to $55. At the end of the festival, after all the hard expenses have been paid and enough money is put aside to cover year-round operating costs, the remaining funds (if any) are divided by the total number of shares to determine the value of each share, and then this money is distributed to all of the performers and technicians on a share basis.

Hat-passing is not allowed at the festival. You are welcome to bring merchandise to sell but will need to make your own arrangements for accepting payment via Venmo or comparable service.

How the Shows at Moisture Festival Work

• All shows are in a variety format, with a host, a live show band and 8 to 10 acts in every show.
• Most shows include one or two aerial acts as part of the mix.
• Most Festival shows are for an audience of all ages. Our matinees attract more children but are not necessarily kids’ shows.
• Friday evenings performances include more adult-oriented material, including burlesque performances, and are suitable for patrons aged 18+.
• Most acts perform between 4 and 8 minutes. Please let us know the length of your act, and whether you can present a shorter act (or a shorter version of that act) in some shows. If your act runs more than 8 minutes, and cannot be shortened, please alert us to this fact.
• For acts that perform with music, we strongly encourage them to work with our live band, although it is possible to use recorded music. Our band leaders will contact you in advance to explore the possibilities.
• Every show features a mix of acts—rarely are two shows the same. Acts may appear anywhere from once to ten times over the month-long course of the festival, and no one performs in every show. Out-of-town acts usually come in for one or two weeks and perform in most, but not all, shows during their time in Seattle.
• All acts need to be able to set up and strike very quickly. Generally, there is limited tech rehearsal. We will provide a sound check and lighting check, and review necessary cues. This is a fast-moving festival, so acts that require extensive technical rehearsal are not advised. If you are booked, we will ask you to fully fill out your tech requirements in our performer tech needs questionnaire.
• All shows take place in the Broadway Performance Hall, where there is theatrical lighting, a sound system, technicians, and shared dressing rooms. The theater is not equipped to handle complicated unique technical demands, and lighting instruments usually cannot be refocused for a specific act, although two follow spots are available.
• For aerial acts, initial rigging is done three hours before the first show of the week. Aerial artists are called 2 hours before all other shows. Aerial artists are required to carry liability insurance and secure a rider naming Moisture Festival as an additional insured.

As of this writing, Covid vaccinations are encouraged but not required. We are monitoring the public health situation and will continue to follow all CDC, Washington State, King County Health Department, and City of Seattle orders and guidelines related to Covid-19.

How Transportation, Housing, and Meals work

Performers coming from outside of the greater Seattle area will usually get their transportation expenses paid or reimbursed IF ARRANGED IN ADVANCE. If you fly to Seattle, the festival will purchase an economy plane ticket. However, if the festival is one stop on a more complicated itinerary, you may purchase your own ticket and get reimbursed for the Seattle segment if arranged in advance. If driving from outside of the Seattle Metropolitan area and within a 200 mile radius, you will be reimbursed at the IRS rate at the time of the show. Mileage reimbursements of greater than 400 miles round trip will have to be pre-approved. We do not provide hotel rooms for long drives. Housing in Seattle will be provided in the home of a host unless you wish to arrange your own housing at your own expense.

Moisture Festival provides healthy and yummy snacks throughout each show day and we provide a full dinner for performers, volunteers, and staff each show day.

Booking Details

The Moisture Festival has a team of Booking Coordinators that select:

• Variety Acts
• Aerial Acts
• Regional Burlesque Acts for our adult-only shows at 7 PM and 10:30 PM on Friday nights

Please note the following:

• Acts using live animals are not allowed.
• Acts using fire or pyrotechnics are not allowed.

Burlesque Acts

In the past, we’ve produced a week of burlesque shows. Currently, we’ve created two shows on Friday that are adult only and combine burlesque with spicy variety acts.

Since we currently only produce one day with burlesque acts, we can only accommodate burlesque performers who are regional (Bellingham to Portland). We cannot fly in burlesque acts for only one day of shows unless the performer also has a different act that is appropriate for the all-ages shows during the rest of the week. If this is the case, they should apply as both a Variety Act and as a Burlesque Act.

In the future, we may return to producing a week of burlesque shows.

Festival Communication

Moisture Festival uses email to communicate with performers. You can contact us about performing in a future festival by emailing booking@moisturefestival.org.

Please remember that the Moisture Festival is primarily run by volunteers. There may be times when responses take a while. However, if you contact us and don’t hear back for a few weeks, please write again. Thank you for your understanding, and thank you for your desire to precipitate!

Applying to Perform at Moisture Festival

If you have read all the above info and would like to apply for the 2026 Moisture Festival, please fill out the Application online at the following link:

Our application process is open September 15 through November 30, 2025. Upon sending your application, you will receive an acknowledgement message that we’ve received your application.

We require video of the act you plan to present. If you are unable to provide that, we can view other videos of your work. Please be clear about what act(s) you would like to perform at the 2026 festival. If you submit a video of an act and then decide you’d like to do a different act, please get the change approved by the Artistic Director before packing your props and arriving in Seattle.

You will hear back about your booking status no later than Jan 15, 2026.

If you have any further questions, you can reach out to our Artistic Director at harrylevine@moisturefestival.org.

We thank you for your interest in the Moisture Festival. We look forward to hearing from you.

Long live the Variety Arts!

A 501(c)(3) organization.
(EIN: 20-3366934)