Forget the airport lounge — Bearded Ladies Cabaret is inviting Philadelphia audiences to check in at the Hairport, a fantastical new transit(ion) center where 16 years of costumes, props, music, memories and performance history have been packed into 'Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle.'
Located at 444 N. 3rd Street, the Hairport is an immersive installation that turns the company’s creative archive into a world audiences can explore.
Visitors can wander through multiple rooms filled with colorful costumes, cardboard props and other artifacts from the company’s history, discovering the stories behind them along the way. Visitors can interact with elements of the installation to uncover performance clips, original music, recorded reflections from performers and other pieces of the troupe’s queer artistic history.
The result is part archive, part art installation, part dreamworld — and a distinctly Bearded Ladies way of asking what we keep, what we remember and what gets carried forward.
Visitors can explore the Hairport Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Timed-entry tickets are available, and the full experience takes approximately 75 to 90 minutes.
The Hairport is also home to a separate Saturday-night cabaret series, transforming the space into an intimate performance lounge for a rotating lineup of artists and collaborators.
The November lineup moves between generations and artistic traditions, with performances celebrating Philadelphia’s queer history, emerging drag talent and Indigenous storytelling.
On Nov. 7, 'Lost & Found: BYO VHS Night!' will revisit Philadelphia’s downtown queer performance scene of the 1990s. Hosted by Andrew Simonet, the evening will feature artistic figures from the era, offering audiences an opportunity to rediscover the people and performances that helped shape the city’s queer cultural landscape.
The following week, on Nov. 14, 'Drag Your Mother! with Teen Lounge' will put the spotlight on the next generation. Hosted by Eric Jaffe and Jarbeaux, the show brings talented teens from Fleisher Art Memorial’s Teen Lounge program together with established Philadelphia drag performers for an intergenerational evening of performance, mentorship and self-expression.
On Nov. 21, 'Priority Seeding with We Are the Seeds' will explore memory, identity and storytelling through Indigenous performance art. Hosted by Jarbeaux, the evening will feature work examining how stories shape our understanding of the world and the histories we carry with us.
Note: The installation and cabaret series are separate experiences, with tickets sold individually. The Hairport installation is closed during Saturday-night performances.
'Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle' is on view at the Hairport, 444 N. Third St., through Dec. 20.
Installation hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The last timed entry is 8:15 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 2:15 p.m. on Saturdays.
Saturday cabaret performances begin at 8 p.m., with doors and the bar opening at 7:30 p.m.
Sliding-scale ticket pricing is available for both experiences. For tickets, the full performance schedule and additional information, visit beardedladiescabaret.com/priority-hoarding.
