fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

“Old-Fashioned Cirkus” New Year’s Eve in Kingston

by Frances Marion Platt
April 1, 2016
in Art & Music, Entertainment
0
(Courtesy of BSP)
(Courtesy of BSP)

Looking for something simultaneously festive and edgy to do to ring in the New Year, with a variety of entertainment within a walkable radius? Kingston’s Stockade District has the ticket for you. The theme for the 2014/15 Uptown Kingston New Year’s Eve is “Old-Fashioned Cirkus,” promising the glory of the 1890 San Severia Spiegeltent and the weirdness of freak shows and burlesque, plus music and dancing late into the night.

Freak shows, you say? Like in that über-creepy Tod Browning movie that you saw at a pot-perfumed midnight screening at the Elgin Theater so long ago?

While a display of real human deformities on Wednesday night seems unlikely, there’s no question that a vein of creepiness lurks under the “wholesome family entertainment” façade of circuses. There has been a duality to their nature going back to their evolution out of the carnage of chariot races in Roman times. “Circuses are all about sex and death,” an aerialist once told me. “Part of the thrill of watching death-defying stunts lies in the tiny piece of each audience member that is secretly rooting for Death to win.

That’s not even to mention the scariness of clowns. In a 2008 study of hospital décor options at the University of Sheffield in the UK, researchers found that “clowns are universally disliked by children” – and judging by their depiction in pop-culture phenomena like Stephen King’s novel It and the TV series American Horror Story, a lot of adults find them terrifying as well.

Fortunately for coulrophobes, clowns aren’t specifically referenced on the New Year’s Eve entertainment roster in Kingston, despite the depiction of one on the poster for the event. What will audiences get instead? Lots of New Vaudeville-style acts of thrilling dexterity and gymnastic prowess supplied by jugglers and unicyclists, members of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus – popular regulars at the Spiegeltent at Bard SummerScape – and a couple of fire-twirling acrobatic hula-hoopers known as Miss 360 and Miss Fly Hips. The exact nature of the Freak Show has not been divulged, but the ringleader and Freak Show host Anna Rexia “has corralled some wicked and bazaar [sic] characters from around the world!” Creative costuming will be involved, and attendees are being invited to partake in the fun by dressing up in a circusy spirit. A photo booth will be available for recording your regalia for posterity.

The epicenter of the action is BSP, which will open its cavernous vaudeville-era back theater at 8 p.m. and host the Spiegeltent, where ticketholders (age 21 and up only) can obtain drinks. Besides the circus and burlesque performers, the evening’s live entertainment will include a knockout lineup of eclectic music, including “freak folk/Muppet punk” from Bella’s Bartók, klezmer and Balkan music from Caprice Rouge and Django-style Gypsy jazz from the Heart Strings Hot Club. Late-night electro-swing dancing will be propelled by deejay Dr. Suds. Admission to all the BSP activities costs $25 in advance, $30 at the door (if not already sold out); VIP Gold wristbands providing such extras as booth seating, a coat check and hors d’oeuvres at the Spiegeltent go for $65 in advance only.

There will be entertainment in other venues as well, including Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones performing in a Pop-Up Beer Hall at 43 North Front Street (next to Tech Smiths), sponsored by Boitson’s Restaurant and Keegan Ales. There will be a $5 suggested cover charge at the door. Jazz will begin at 7 p.m. at the Stockade Tavern, accompanying that establishment’s famed Prohibition-era cocktails, and there will be late-night dancing with DJ Ali.

Restaurants and watering holes around the neighborhood will be open late into the night, including a special “Brunck” (Drunk Brunch) until 3 a.m. at Duo Bistro. So even if you decide to pass on the Old-fashioned Cirkus, you can still wander around the Uptown streets, grab a meal and hang out watching buskers until the big midnight Ball Drop at the corner of Wall and North Front Streets.

For more information about the third annual Uptown Kingston New Year’s Eve, visit https://uptownkingstonnye.com, www.bspkingston.com or the BSP Kingston Facebook page. To order advance tickets to the festivities and oddities at BSP, visit https://bit.ly/1BOUNAo. For a map showing free parking locations and shuttle stops, visit http://bspkingston.com/?attachment_id=1103.

 

Uptown Kingston New Year’s Eve, Wednesday/Thursday, December 31/January 1, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., $65/$30/$25/$5/free, Wall/Front Streets, Kingston; https://uptownkingstonnye.com, www.bspkingston.com, https://bit.ly/1BOUNAo.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Ball Drop jam festival New Year’s Eve in Kerhonkson

Next Post

Saugerties year in review

Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

Related Posts

Every live music event in Ulster County this week
Art & Music

Every live music event in Ulster County this week

June 6, 2023
Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom
Art & Music

Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom

June 1, 2023
Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday
Art & Music

Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday

June 1, 2023
Dozens of activities for all ages in Ulster County this week
Community

Dozens of activities for all ages in Ulster County this week

May 31, 2023
All the art events in Ulster County this week
Art & Music

All the art events in Ulster County this week

May 31, 2023
Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday
Art & Music

Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday

May 31, 2023
Next Post

Saugerties year in review

Trending News

  • In Kingston, an apartment complex gets a long overdue name change 1.4k views
  • Adopt A Pet today at the Ulster County SPCA 1.1k views
  • Thousands take to streets in New Paltz for LGBTQ+ Pride 844 views
  • Vintage baseball game in Hudson Valley will play by 1800s rules 555 views
  • Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom 517 views
  • Brookside Road overpass bridge in New Paltz is closed indefinitely due to multiple collisions 454 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
48°
Partly Cloudy
5:20 am8:28 pm EDT
Feels like: 48°F
Wind: 2mph N
Humidity: 90%
Pressure: 29.63"Hg
UV index: 0
ThuFriSat
64/48°F
68/50°F
73/50°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing