An 1890s-style circus tent packed with acrobats, live music, and lavish tableside dining opened its doors tonight at Alameda Point, kicking off the 2026 season of The Soiled Dove. Folk music icon Joan Baez is part of the lineup this year, lending her name and voice to the raucous, adults-only cabaret staged along the city's waterfront.
The City of Alameda shared photos from opening night on Facebook, crediting Maurice Ramirez for the images and describing an evening built around live music, roaming spectacle, and circus acts woven between courses of a multi-course dinner, according to the City of Alameda. The show has returned to Radium Runway at Alameda Point, the same municipal post notes, with ticket information available directly through The Soiled Dove's website.
A Barbary Coast Fantasy Under the Big Top
The production casts its audience back into San Francisco's 1890s Barbary Coast, the Gold Rush-era red-light district once packed with saloons and dance halls, according to the show's own site. That period setting shapes everything from costuming to the show's tone, giving the circus its saloon-hall energy inside the tent at Alameda Point.
Baez stars as the character Paloma Blanca, or White Dove, opposite comedian Frank Ferrante's MC Caesar, according to Broadway World. Baez also displays her Mischief Makers portrait artwork around the tent, with pieces depicting civil rights and social justice figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, the outlet reported.
Live Score and a Tableside Feast
The show's original music comes from Sgt. Splendor, a band fronted by Eric McFadden and Kate Vargas, whose live performance inside the tent was documented in a music video released on YouTube in June. The band released an album titled Isotopia in 2025, featuring tracks written specifically for the production.
Dinner service is handled by San Francisco eco-catering company Work of Art, which prepares a multi-course meal including beef bourguignon and a plant-based mushroom bourguignon, served to tables by cast members in character, per Local News Matters. The catering company was founded in 1991 and specializes in sustainable experiential events, the outlet noted.
Schedule, Tickets and the 21-Plus Rule
This season runs Fridays and Saturdays from today through October 10 at Alameda Point, with doors opening at 7:30 PM for the optional dinner and the main show starting at 9 PM, according to the Alameda Post. General admission tickets start at $74.13, and the show remains strictly 21-and-up, staged inside a 12,000-square-foot circus tent.
From a Mission Warehouse to an Alameda Anchor
The show's presence in Alameda traces back to a real estate displacement a decade ago. Hoodline reported in November 2016 that the Vau de Vire Society, the circus troupe behind the production, was forced out of its Mission warehouse after a real estate buyout, pushing the troupe's major tent productions across the bay to Alameda. That displacement was chronicled in a short film by Castro filmmaker Abhi Singh, the earlier Hoodline report noted.
Before landing in its current big-top format, the show had a much smaller footprint. SFGATE reported in March 2015 that critics reviewing The Soiled Dove's early run at InnerMission in San Francisco compared its adults-only circus and dining format to the long-running Teatro ZinZanni, with the production having debuted in 2014-2015 before expanding into its present setup.
Building Toward a Permanent Stage
Radium Runway, the two-acre outdoor site at 2151 Ferry Point along Alameda Point's Seaplane Lagoon Promenade, can host gatherings ranging from 100 to 3,000 people, according to Radium Runway's official venue guide. Events exceeding 500 attendees require a City of Alameda permit submitted at least four months in advance, the guide states.
The venue's operator, nonprofit Radium Presents, uses Radium Runway as an outdoor living laboratory while working toward a permanent 500-to-600-seat waterfront performing arts center at Alameda Point, according to the organization's website. Radium Presents was founded in 2017 by tech entrepreneur Christopher Seiwald. City of Alameda municipal records from this year show the city introduced an ordinance for a three-year lease option toward a 66-year ground lease with Radium Presents to build a 53,000-square-foot performing arts center on 1.87 acres near Building 77 at Alameda Point.
