About Inkin' The Valley & Sideshow Gathering
The Sideshow Gathering — the world's only sideshow convention — is the premier networking event for performers, fans, collectors, historians, and the curious. Held concurrent with the Inkin' The Valley tattoo convention, the event brings together many of today's best sideshow performers for a weekend of gasps, shrieks, and laughs while talented artists cover acres of bare skin with original body art. This event has been featured by CNN, The Discovery Channel, TLC, Bizarre, and others!
The 10th Annual Sideshow Gathering and 18th Annual Inkin' The Valley will be held 4 through 6 November 2011 in Wilkes-Barre PA, as a tribute to founder Franco Kossa who passed away suddenly on 2 May 2011.
For information about this year's performers, please visit www.mundieart.com/ssg2011.htm.
The Sideshow Gathering is a one-of-a-kind cavalcade of astonishing talent, history, and artistry. It's the only place in the country where you can witness such a range of practitioners, both old and new, of a form of entertainment that is the very definition of extraordinary. You are guaranteed to see things that you never imagined, and will never forget. — Stephon Walker (a.k.a., Swami YoMahmi of Cheeky Monkey Sideshow)
The shows are mostly gone from carnivals as are all the old showmen's clubs, and it's the era of the new vaudeville, the new burlesque, the new sideshow, the new variety entertainment. And before just a few years ago, those showfolk had no such clubs, no such associations, no such home. The annual Sideshow Gathering in Wilkes-Barre is the showmen's club for all of variety's future. — James Taylor of Shocked and Amazed!
We live in a day and age of multimillion dollar special effect entertainment be it Pirates of the Caribbean or Vegas. However, there is nothing like being in the small audience of a real sideshow and feeling the heat from the torch of the fire-eater, watching a glass eater's act knowing there is no trick photography, knowing that the performers have real tattoos that don't wash off. No other entertainment can match the sideshow for that. — Dick Zigun, founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow
The Sideshow Gathering is the Switzerland of this illegitimate entertainment. It provides a neutral ground for some of the most entertaining egos to gather. It is the only place on Earth where you will get tired of watching someone nail a spike directly into their head. — Keith Nelson of The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
I'm still humbled by the other performers and the different ways that they present their acts to the public. For my opinion, we as performers are a family. — Sword swallower Red Stuart
The Side Show Gathering is a must for all aficionados of human oddities and performers of the strange and weird! Today's performers of the unusual entertain and amaze. Yesterday's ‘greats’ share past history and experiences with newcomers. It's a three-day adventure like no other I know. — Walt Hudson in Circus Report
It is Christmas, your birthday and your first kiss all rolled up into one great weekend! The Sideshow Gathering is the greatest gathering of freaks (and the folks who love them) in the history of entertainment. If you're a fan of the odd, bizarre and unusual — or if you just plain love a good time — the Sideshow Gathering is the place to be! — Kathleen Kotcher, editor of Shocked and Amazed!
http://www.inkinthevalley.com
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Additional Information
 This is a public group.
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