The 2012 CONGRESS OF CURIOUS PEOPLES Opens at Coney Island, 4/13

Now in its 6th year, the Congress of Curious Peoples is a 10-day series of lectures and performances about curiosity and Curiosities, broadly conceived. The Congress is a co-production of Coney Island USA and the Morbid Anatomy Library and brings together a mass audience, notable performers from the world of vaudeville, burlesque and the sideshow arts, and the scholars and academics who write about them. For a limited time each year, scholars share space with performers live on stage in Sideshows by the Seashore and the Coney Island Museum.

The 2012 Congress of Curious Peoples runs from April 13-22, 2012, and features performances by the Lizard Man, UCLA’s Erkki Huhtamo, the Circus Emporium Roadshow, Les the Mentalist, and many others.

The 10-day festival begins with opening weekend, which introduces new members into the Sideshow Hall of Fame; five more days of thrilling lectures and esoteric and bizarre performances follow; and the entire wonderfest comes to a cacophonous head with Super Freak Weekend and the Congress for Curious People, a two day scholarly symposium. Throughout the festival, legendary sideshow performers will be appearing at Sideshows by the Seashore and a colonnade of curious venders and entrepreneurs will be hosted in the Freak Bar.

Tickets are on sale now at http://www.spectacularium.org/congress-of-curious-peoples/