Performer Booking Info

Thank you for your interest in Seattle’s Moisture Festival. We are dedicated to presenting the very best in live comedy/varieté entertainment. Our festival is organized by performers, for performers, and has become a place to gather, see old friends and meet new ones. Our approach is a unique volunteer-driven festival and continues to be a work in progress.

The 2025 Moisture Festival will run March 20th through April 13th at Broadway Performance Hall.

We will begin our booking for the 2025 festival on October 16th. Please stay tuned for updates and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for announcements.

If you are interested in performing at the 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. To be clear, the Moisture Festival is not a music festival, an arts festival, a dance festival, a theater festival, a buskers festival, or a fringe festival. Seattle’s Moisture Festival is a varieté festival. We book acts, which we put together with other acts to create a two-hour variety show, complete with a host and a live show band. Most acts perform for 4 to 8 minutes.

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 policy 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 a few slots for performers with whom we are not yet familiar.

Please note that acts using live animals are not allowed. Moisture Festival cannot accommodate acts using fire or pyrotechnics.

How the money works

Please don’t approach this as a paid gig or 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.  All festival performers need to be able to work legally in the USA. Moisture Festival is unable to sponsor work visas for the 2025 festival.

How the shows at the Moisture Festival work

All shows are in a variety format, with a host, a live show band and eight to 10 acts in every show. Most shows include one or two aerial acts as part of the mix and the Friday late-night shows may include one or two burlesque acts.

Festival shows are ‘all ages’ with the exception of Friday evenings when both performances include more adult-oriented material, including burlesque performances, and are suitable for patrons aged 18+. Our matinees attract more children but are not ‘kids shows.’

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.

Most acts perform between four and eight 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 work to music, we encourage them to work with the live band, although it is possible to use recorded music. Every show features a different 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 some (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 quick sound check and/or lighting check as needed. and review necessary cues. If you are booked, we will ask you to fully fill out your tech requirements in our performer tech needs questionnaire.

For aerial acts, the rigging must be done two hours before the start of the show. This is a fast-moving festival, so acts that require extensive technical rehearsal are not advised. Aerial artists are required to carry liability insurance and secure a rider naming Moisture Festival as an additional insured.

All shows take place in venues where there is theatrical lighting, a sound system, technicians, shared dressing rooms, etc, but the theaters are not equipped to handle complicated technical demands, and lighting instruments usually can not be refocused for a specific act.

How Transportation and Housing 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 you drive to Seattle, we reimburse mileage (up to the cost of an economy plane ticket) but 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.

Booking Details

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

• Variete Acts
• Aerial Acts
• Burlesque Acts for our adult only shows @ 7:30 and 10:45 on Friday nights

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, all of whom have lives outside of the festival, so 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. We are not perfect, the internet is not perfect, and sometimes things get lost. Thank you for your understanding, and, thank you for your desire to precipitate!

Artist Questionnaire