Nine self-storage units in Northeast Philadelphia held onto sixteen years of cardboard props, worn costumes, and stage ephemera from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Starting September 10, all of it gets a second life inside a fantastical, walk-through airport terminal in Northern Liberties, where visitors can wander through gate-like installations, meet costumed docents, and even hop on a surrey bike.
The installation, titled Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle, repurposes props and set pieces retrieved from those nine units, representing physical artifacts saved from 30 original productions across the company's history, according to WHYY. As West Philly Local reports, the installation is produced by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret and takes place at a space called The Hairport, located at 444 N. 3rd Street.
The Hairport is designed as a fantastical metaphorical airport, and visitors are invited to interact with components of the installation rather than simply observe them, per the outlet's reporting. Docents guide small groups through the space, and an optional surrey bike ride is part of the experience. The installation reportedly poses a central question running through the whole show: how do people know when it's time to move on, when they don't know where they're going?
What's Actually Inside The Terminal
The Hairport contains costumes, cardboard props, and other ephemera pulled from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret's 16-year performance history, per West Philly Local. WHYY's reporting frames the project not just as festival programming but as an archival transformation for the company, built from cardboard the founders treated as a core artistic medium rather than disposable set dressing. Company founder Rose Jarboe and resident costume designer Rebecca Kanach saved physical materials from every show over the years, according to WHYY's account.
Groups enter the installation in clusters of six people at 15-minute timed intervals, and the full walk-through takes roughly 60 to 75 minutes to experience, per West Philly Local. The Hairport is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the last timed entry at 2:15 p.m., and Wednesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., with last entry at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday hours only run during September.
Live Performances Take Over The Lounge
The experience culminates in a lounge space that doubles as the performance site for a series called Now Hoarding: An In-Flight Entertainment Series, which happens on Saturdays at 8 p.m. during the run. According to FringeArts, the Saturday night lineup features live cabarets, demonstrations, and rituals performed by local Philadelphia artists, turning the immersive installation into an active live-performance venue after dark.
Tickets follow a Pay-What-You-Can model, with advance reservations ranging from $16 to $35, a $25 general admission rate, and $0-and-up options available at the door, FringeArts notes. The Saturday night in-flight series carries its own Pay-What-You-Can range, from $10 to $50.
A Run That Outlasts Fringe Festival Itself
Priority Hoarding is part of FringeArts' 2026 festival and Collective Futures, per West Philly Local. Though it premieres alongside the September Fringe Festival, the installation stays open at The Hairport through December 20, an unusually long run for a Fringe production, according to FringeArts. Priority Hoarding also serves as a featured project within Collective Futures, a six-week citywide festival running from October 2 through November 15 that spotlights more than 30 independent Philadelphia art spaces, DIY venues, and artist collectives, according to Vox Populi.
The project's scale was made possible in part by institutional funding. The creation and production of Priority Hoarding received a 2024 project grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, which backs major cultural initiatives across the region. The Bearded Ladies Cabaret was also named an Art & Culture Grantee by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund this July, adding general operating support on top of its project-specific funding.
Sixteen Years Rooted In Philadelphia Theater
The Bearded Ladies Cabaret was founded in 2010 by artistic director Rose Jarboe, growing out of Philadelphia's local theater scene with early performances at venues including the Wilma Theater, according to the Forman Arts Initiative. The company has since built a track record of cross-genre collaboration, including co-producing the 2015 Fringe Festival show ANDY: A Popera alongside Opera Philadelphia.
The Hairport itself sits on ground with its own layered history. The site at 444 N. 3rd Street once housed the Philadelphia Turngemeinde's first turnhalle, a gymnasium and social hall established in 1858, according to the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The Turngemeinde was a prominent German-American civic and gymnastics organization in 19th-century Philadelphia, giving the current installation's playful terminal concept an unexpected historical echo in the same building.
