The Bohemian Masquerade Ball is the vanguard for a whole sub-culture of junkyard heros, gentleman punks, flaneurs, neo-vaudeville and circus performers.
A bi-annual boutique festival, running since 2007, recognised as the grand carnival of underground culture. A debauched boiling-pot of independent music, extreme circus, neo-vaudeville and art installations. Gypsy bands, swing, jazz and blues even classical music has appeared at the event but we also featured experimental hiphop, trip-hop, glitch and wobble. Sideshow circus, burlesque, cabaret acts and rovers are threaded between the headline bands to create a seamless event, overwhelming the audience to create something that has an explosive effect with no comparison.
We have retained a strong commitment to presenting local performers and bands from Australia’s sub-cultural artistic communities, predominantly those from Melbourne, but we represent and link West End, Marrickville and Newtown, Northern Rivers and the northern suburbs of Melbourne into one glorious Bohemia that spans states and transcends genres and labels.
So who is The Boho Ball?
We represent a cross section of several high-octane sub-cultures. We have a style; vests, hats, boots, ties, cuff links, tattoos, mustaches, manners, insomnia, gardening, sunshine, vagabonding. The era of jazz is prominent, but it is see-sawed by the brashness of punk. But opposed to the original burst of punk, we are not nihilistic or apathetic, but elaborators, with an understanding of social and environmental sustainability. This is a sub-culture that avoids branding and is highly conscious of what companies they are seen to support.
We are romantics, theatrical, but not naive. Mythology and symbolism is prominent in artistic expressions and pseudonyms. With sensitivity for philosophy and a need for intelligence to be balanced by spirituality. We dance, we play, we live in warehouses and forests. We have university degrees, though we teach ourselves life. Backpacking the world, we have little room for possessions, our currency is experience.
The Bohemian Masquerade Ball is the pivotal experience in our society of the spectacle. A boutique festival who’s stage expands as the night progresses.