What The Festival, co-founded by Byron Laviolette and Alicia DiStefano, is a four-day event dedicated to the promotion, presentation and popularization of Clown, Puppetry and Drag performance. The festival is the flagship operation of the Strange Maker Collective, which also hosts the annual SPRING THING variety cabaret series.
What follows is the first in an quarterly series of thoughts, reflections and observations on WTF’s journey throughout 2025.
We want YOU! (And we mean that.)
That’s what started this whole experiment - the idea of building something that is not only inclusive of genres but also of people. Of approaches. Of perspectives. Of identities.
For those who may not know, WTF is in-part a resurrection of the Toronto Festival of Clowns, an organization that ended in 2018 but operated for 13 years as the central hub and platform for what we now call Strange Makers - Clowns, Puppeteers, Drag artists and beyond. It allowed local artists to share their work and inspired a new generation of artists to invest in their development, knowing that they all had a home to be seen and recognized. Its loss was felt by many.
So, to honour what the TFoC achieved, and to build and improve upon it, we wanted to create an organization whose sole focus is to showcase what’s weird, wild and wonderful in an environment that not only celebrates difference, but also extends an invitation for all walks of life to feel included to play along with us.
“I recognized how carefully the festival was curated - from the box office to the welcoming atmosphere of the preshow to the post-show experience. The obvious desire to enhance the way the audience was welcomed was very special, as were the efforts to make everything at the festival open and supportive for all - audiences and artists alike.”
Amongst the MANY things we love about clown, puppetry, and drag (and by extension bouffon, mask, burlesque, etc.) is that they are all audience embracing art forms in a way a lot of other theatre isn’t. Drag Kings, Queens and Things rely on the crowd to play along. Fools of all types can’t thrive in a silent room. Even a puppeteer's use of felt, fur and feathers expect the audience to be in on the game, trading the suspension of disbelief into an investment in belief.
We deeply value the fact that, with Strange Makers, what you're seeing on stage is a physical, musical, and sometimes comical manifestation of how someone sees the world around them. Sure, the human being behind it all can be concealed behind a nose, or makeup, or covered in sequins or spandex, or contained under a mass of felt and fur, but this isn’t meant to hide anything. Quite the opposite. What we get instead is a brightness, a boldness, a creature or character that while fictional - appears to be more real than us - who shows us what life is or might be like.
Image provided by WTFestival
And the world is a scary place right now. People are divided, uncertain and afraid. It feels more and more unsafe for those who look, or think, or act, or simply are, different. There is a real push towards conformity, towards control and conservatism that seems to encourage people to step in line and be afraid.
So the perfect time to start a festival dedicated to inclusion and community, right?!?
For us, yes. 100%
“I really enjoyed the warmth I felt from everyone behind-the-scenes. I was warmly welcomed when I arrived, and the excitement and joy from the WTF team was palpable. It really helped me feel comfortable and excited for my own performance!”
Now, let’s be frank - WTF’s leadership team is white. And straight. And old. (Not that old, lol, but older than most of our acts are) and that can be complicated. And yes, in 2024, of the 28 cabaret acts selected by WTF, 40% identified as members of BIPOC communities, and 39% identified as emerging artists between the ages of 18-30. And we proudly stand as allies to the LGBTQIA2S+ communities - many of our performers identify as queer, or trans, or intersex. But there is still so much work to do.
So what are we? Advocates and champions of these art forms? Artistic leaders brave enough to produce full time? Gate keepers? (By its very nature, a curated festival means some people get in, and others don’t. For example, we had 82 artists apply for 32 cabaret spots - that’s turning away more than half of our applicants!) In truth, we’re probably all these things, but what we hope to be above all else is enablers, motivators and activators paving the way for difference to be celebrated rather than feared and for often unheard voices to be amplified - now louder than ever .
The question, of course, is how do we make sure we can continue to hold and create space for strange making? By shining brighter, by banding together, by being friendly and inviting. (That might sound a bit childish, but so often, live art forgets this, seemingly seeing the audience as a necessary evil rather than the very reason to exist.)
“Artist: I thought it was a fantastically well-organized and welcoming festival for artists on the fringe. My perception of the festival from afar was of a really cool space full of a diverse array of artists and when I arrived in person it lived very much up to my hopes and expectations.”
But it’s not easy. Care costs money, and time. We struggle, constantly, to afford offering accessible ticket prices while being committed to paying artists equitable fees and properly compensating our staff for their (incredible) efforts. And while these challenges are not new, we still are.
So this is us. These are the things we are thinking about, worrying about, caring about. It’s not easy, but we do it happily because we believe so deeply in holding space for those often seen as ‘others’, or who are often not seen at all. For us, Strange Makers are the most special, the most interesting and the most deserving of support. Especially now as we have the potential to advocate for the benefits of radical inclusion and the celebration of difference through our presence as a form of resistance.
“I love the community around WTF! Everyone I interacted with was positive and excited to be a part of the festival whether they were on the organization side, artists participating and audience members seeing shows. Hanging out after the show felt fun and WTF crafted a great atmosphere to stick around and chat in!”
We hope you will join us this year - both here and at our events - and follow along to learn more about how we grow, change and attempt to honour radical inclusion in everything we do.
As we say at WTF - #bettertogether. Now it’s time to prove it.
You can learn more about who we are and what we do at www.wtfestival.ca
