Great article on the Las Vegas Weekly about the VLV Rockabilly Weekender last weekend:

Viva las bailout: Rockabilly Weekend brings economic stimulus, real breasts, grease monkeys

The economy may be contracting—and with it Vegas’ convention business and my shoe budget—but interest in all things rockabilly is somehow inexplicably expanding. Funny thing is, it costs a fortune to be this retro!
Viva Burlesque

Word around the Bettie Page store Thursday was that so far, those that had checked in to the Orleans for the 12th annual Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend were quite pleased with the upgrade from the Gold Coast. After 11 years of loyalty to founder Tom Ingram’s wild Vegas weekends of jive lessons, car shows, burlesque competitions and nearly nonstop live performances, the music festival had swelled to about 6,500, beyond the Gold Coast’s capacity. Still, others are staying at the Gold Coast anyway, preferring to take the free shuttle and save their ducats for beaucoup Pabst Blue Ribbon and some fresh pomade. I think I personally funded a car company’s bailout.

But what this blog really cares about, is the burlesque. Right?

Finally, the lights dim. Last year’s burlesque-competition winner, Dizzy Von Damn, doffs her kit to a Tiki-esque ditty, after which the so-called stage kitten, Vegas’ Vi Vacious, and co-producer Renea le Roux (“The Southern Belle from Hell”) pick up the stripping detritus.

There are thin girls, thick girls, tan ones and pale ones, girls who waist-train with corsets and one who simply has no waist. But regardless of their personal style, they share the ability to draw our attentions to the slightest of details, like a wrist or an ankle and maybe—ooh!—a knee! “Subtle is sexy,” says co-producer Victoria Vengeance. For all the time they spent primping in the dressing rooms putting it on, it takes but a second for it all to land in a pile on the floor. Call it art mimicking life.
Burlesque Competition @ Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend

The audience eats up every second of it. Not surprisingly, they very loudly show their preference for real breasts, real curves. Gals who can get their nipple tassels in a twirl are held up as goddesses among women. And just when Vegas had me thinking fake boobs were the end-all, be-all. Burlesque is a size-acceptance art.

In the end, Lucy Fur, the life-size Tiki doll, takes first place, with Vegas’ own Cha Cha Velour of the Babes in Sin burlesque troupe (and also a registered nurse) taking second.

Congratulations to Lucy Fur for winning this year’s competition! (I’ve got to see this Tiki Doll number one of these days.)

And congratulations to all the lovely ladies who competed, produced, and otherwise represented burlesque in a big way this past weekend!

Read the rest of the article, check out photos and video from Las Vegas Weekly.

Online voting opened on January 1st for this year’s Viva Las Vegas Burlesque Competition.

This year they’ve begun to require YouTube videos, so we can get a sense of these gorgeous gals in action. Make sure to vote for your favorite! Only the top six will bump n’ grind it out on the VLV stage.