What began as a one-off charity event in Gloucester in 2010 became something much harder to manufacture: a local stage with its own audience, identity and community. Cherries On A Cloud built its reputation through burlesque, cabaret, comedy, circus and the occasional unexpected act, with producer and performer Kitty Ribbons at its centre.
Divine Magazine first covered Cherries On A Cloud in 2019, when years of sold-out performances prompted the production to leave its original 1940s-style hall for the larger Walls Club in Barnwood. Seven years later, the story is no longer simply about a venue move. Cherries On A Cloud has continued putting performers onstage, while Kitty’s work developing emerging burlesque artists has become an increasingly important part of its identity.
From a Gloucester Charity Show to a Burlesque Community
The original Cherries On A Cloud story started modestly. Kitty Ribbons launched the event in 2010 because Gloucester lacked the kind of high-quality burlesque and cabaret night she wanted to see locally. What began as a charity event developed an audience strong enough that, by 2019, organisers reported four consecutive years of sold-out shows.
The appeal was never restricted to one definition of burlesque. Cherries presented traditional burlesque alongside cabaret, boylesque, comedy, magic, circus, sideshow and even poetry. That unpredictability gave the night its texture. Audiences could arrive knowing the character of the show without necessarily knowing what the next few minutes would contain.
The 2019 Show Marked a Turning Point
On March 30, 2019, Cherries On A Cloud launched at its larger Walls Club home with an international cast headed by award-winning comedy, cabaret and circus performer Abigail Collins. Sandy Sure and Betty Blue Eyes returned after appearing before Cherries audiences in 2018, while magician and comedian Al Rudge and host Miss Em added still more variety to the bill.
Collins’ comments at the time captured something more interesting than the size of the production. She described Cherries as one of her favourite UK shows and singled out its sense of community, its audience and Kitty Ribbons’ work as a producer. Behind the sequins was an infrastructure performers apparently wanted to return to.
Kitty’s Academy Became Part of the Story
Cherries On A Cloud was also creating a route onto the stage. By 2019, Kitty’s Burlesque Academy had already been running for seven years, and graduates were being given opportunities to perform for a live Cherries audience.
That connection between teaching and performing gives the project significance beyond booking established acts. A polished headline performer can draw an audience, but a sustainable scene also needs somewhere for new artists to discover what happens under stage lights: timing, nerves, movement, costume, audience response and those quiet seconds before the music begins.
Kitty described that opportunity to perform in front of an audience as empowering. Years later, the academy connection remains one of the clearest threads running through the Cherries story.
Cherries On A Cloud in 2026
The useful update for anyone finding the original 2019 feature today is simple: Cherries On A Cloud did not end with that chapter.
In April 2026, Kitty’s Academy Alumni Showcase brought former students back to the Gloucester stage alongside newer performers. The bill included Johnny O, Ivy Malice, Verity Vedette and Luna Mermaid, with Kitty Ribbons hosting. It offered a fitting continuation of the mentoring work already visible when Divine Magazine first covered the production.
Then, in June 2026, Cherries On A Cloud presented another burlesque show at The Frog and Fiddle in Cheltenham. Kitty Ribbons appeared alongside Mimi Mariama, Jiggles, Llywelyn and Fleur Devil, with the event positioned as welcoming both established burlesque followers and people experiencing a show for the first time.
Why Small Independent Stages Matter
Burlesque lives through proximity. Costumes catch the light differently from a few metres away. A comic pause depends on hearing the room react. Performers can break the invisible wall between stage and audience with little more than an expression.
Independent nights such as Cherries On A Cloud give that exchange somewhere to happen. They can introduce audiences to established performers while leaving space for developing artists who need genuine stage experience rather than another rehearsal.
The original audience reviews supplied to Divine Magazine repeatedly returned to the same qualities: atmosphere, organisation, comedy, costumes, performers and a feeling of being part of the evening rather than simply watching it.
The Cherries Are Still Onstage
The 2019 version of this story captured Cherries On A Cloud at a moment of expansion. Demand had pushed the show into a larger Gloucester venue, international performers were sharing bills with familiar returning acts, and academy graduates were stepping beneath the lights.
In 2026, the more compelling detail is continuity. The venues and performers can change. New names arrive. Former students return with developed stage identities of their own. Yet the underlying idea remains recognisable: give burlesque and cabaret a room, give performers an audience, and make the night feel intimate enough that people want to come back.
Sixteen years after that original charity event, Cherries On A Cloud’s story is still being written under stage lights.