Pack Your Baggage, The Future of Queer Art Awaits!

Welcome to the Bearded Ladies’ Hairport, an interactive installation built on 16-years of accumulated baggage from a queer cabaret company devoted to art, care, mess, and community. While you’re waiting for a flight that may never take off, unpack your baggage and rifle through some of ours. You may recognize something as your own, or find something you never knew you were carrying.

Made for anyone who has ever lost a bag, gotten stuck, or missed a (metaphoric) flight, this trans(formational) installation asks: how do you know it’s time to move on when you don’t know where you’re going?

Installation
The Hairport is an interactive, immersive installation filled with costumes, cardboard props, and other ephemera from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret’s 16-year performance history. Visitors will make their way through a sprawling multi-room space made to look like a fantastical, metaphorical “airport”. Visitors will be invited to interact with components of the installation and may encounter docents in guiding roles. The experience will culminate in a “lounge” space full of “Bearded baggage” which will also serve as the performance site for the Now Hoarding: In-Flight Entertainment live event series.

It will take visitors approximately 60-75 minutes to view the entirety of the Priority Hoarding installation. Groups of 6 will enter the installation, at 15-minute timed entry intervals. An opportunity to ride a Surrey bike is offered but not required.

Now Hoarding: An In-Flight Entertainment Series
Live Events
Join us Saturday nights in the Hairport Lounge at Priority Hoarding for in-flight live entertainment. Featuring a first class lineup of Philadelphia talent, the Now Hoarding series is a connecting flight of performance rituals, cabarets, demonstrations and conversations for a community constantly in transition. So, whether you’re a frequent flyer or with us for the first time, fasten your seatbelts (until we hit cruising altitude), and prepare to be transported!

Event Information

September 10-27, 2026

Pricing

Installation: PWYC $16–$35 in advance
Events: PWYC $10–$50 in advance
All tickets: PWYC from $0 at the door

Venue

The Hairport
444 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123

About the Artists

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is a queer arts organization that sits on your lap and sings you a story. Whether it’s an opera, a home-made cabaret, a musical walking tour, or a show on a truck, we employ song, spectacle, storytelling, and heart to welcome audiences into moments of joy, healing, and subversion. Through sharing our original pieces and creating bespoke platforms for performance at home in Philadelphia, nationally, and abroad, we nurture artistic connection for a community of misfits, rabble-rousers, chanteuses and the people who love and need them. Their work has been seen all over Philadelphia including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eastern State Penitentiary, Opera Philadelphia, the Wilma Theater, FringeArts, and the Delaware River Waterfront and they have brought their cabaret revolution to Miami, Seattle, Paris, Washington DC, New Zealand, Provincetown, Maryland and Delaware. In New York their work has been seen at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, La MaMa Etc, Works & Process at the Guggenheim and Lincoln Center. Their signature programs The Beardmobile and LATE NIGHT SNACKS together have provided a stage for over 500 queer and nightlife artists. Find the Beards at www.beardedladiescabaret.com or on Facebook/Instagram @beardedladiescabaret.

Bearded Ladies Staff
Founder and Artistic Director: Rose Jarboe (she/her)
Associate Artistic Director: Sally Ollove (she/her)
Managing Director: Wesley Flash (he/him)
Production Manager: Taylor Jedlinski (she/her)
Marketing Manager: Elena Faverio (they/them)
Staff Producer: Carlos Diaz Stoop (he/him)
Operations & Facilities Coordinator: Kat Wilson (they/them)

Creative & Production Team

Co-Conceiver, Director, Co-Scenic Designer: Rose Jarboe
Co-Conceiver + Dramaturg: Sally Ollove
Co-Scenic/Installation Designer and Beards Resident Costume Designer: Rebecca Kanach
Production Manager: Taylor Jedlinski
Staff Producer: Carlos Diaz Stoop
Project Producer: JT Newman
Stage Manager: Lian Brody
Filmmaker/Video Consultant: Christopher Ash
Filmmaker/Editor: Michael Long
Assistant Scenic Designer: Jaime Mejia
Projections Creative Designer: Taj Rauch
Projections Systems Designer: Alex Dembner
Technical Director: Michael Lambui
Lighting Designer: Kate McGee
Associate Lighting Designer: Bless Rudisill
Suitcase Lead: Emily Schuman
Co-Sound Designers: Elizabeth Atkinson & Natali Merrill
Participation Choreographer: Andrew Simonet
Grief Counselor: Naila Francis
Music Director: Heath Allen
Graphic Designer: Philip McFee (Flying Hand Studio)
Suitcase Fabricators: Andrea Arts, Kelly McLaughlan, Miss Thing
Production Assistant/Scenic Crew: Arielle DeVito
Scenic Crew/Electrician: Teresa Burns
Scenic Crew/Painter: Clare Wislar
Scenic Crew: Ivan Dellinger, Aram Mouradian, Calla Nelles-sager, Gladys Nobriga, Joseph Nolan, Izzy Price, Fletcher Rabin, Zain S
Lead Electrician: Cait Foster
Lighting Crew: Ethan Paone, Xander Setchko
Sound Crew Lead/A1: Ophelia Evans
Sound Crew: Carson Phillips
Associate Artists: Veronica Chapman Smith, Jess Conda, Cookie Diorio, Daniel de Jesús, Messapotamia Lefae, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, Jackie Soro, and MK Tuomanen

Photo (c) Emma Lee/WHYY

Supporters

Producers
Christine Frost Red and Michael Wax
Co-Producers
Rosanne Sarkissian
Salem Shuchman and Barbara Klock
Shelley Green and Michael Golden

Priority Hoarding has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Accessibility

This installation is an immersive, interactive experience that will involve walking between spaces, navigating uneven surfaces, steps, and low light areas. We have done our best to offer accessible options wherever possible. For more detailed information on accessibility, please contact The Bearded Ladies at BeardedLadiesCabaret@gmail.com

Content Considerations

This event is appropriate for ages 13+

Adult Language
Audience Interaction
Fog/Smoke Effects

Health & Safety

Masks are optional, vaccines are not required. More information about FringeArts COVID policies can be found here.