Since 2014, Vermont has hosted a burlesque festival akin to one you might find in Las Vegas. The five-day extravaganza features performers flown in from as far as Australia, a black-tie red carpet, a charity auction to raise money for breast cancer research and workshops on the art of the tease. But this will be the Vermont Burlesque Festival's final year in its current form, according to executive producer Cory Royer. Attendance has dwindled, and the event is losing money. Royer said he is considering downsizing the festival or finding cheaper venues outside Burlington, where he feels that ticket buyers are deterred by downtown safety concerns. "As much as our diehards love it, I can't keep doing something if we're losing money," Royer said. "This is not a nonprofit." About 1,400 people attended last year's fest — 400 fewer than in 2023 — which put the event a few hundred dollars in the red. This year, Royer hopes acclaimed headline performers Jessabelle Thunder and Tito Bonito will help turn things around. The festival runs from Wednesday, January 15, to Sunday, January 19, at the Barre Opera House and venues across Burlington, including the 126, Nectar's and Hotel Champlain. Putting on five days of programming doesn't come cheap, and the fest has struggled with its bottom line throughout its history. Each year's entertainment costs roughly $70,000 to produce, Royer said. He personally finances it using money earned from his day job running a media production company, PhotoGraphic TV. Royer doesn't take a salary and invests any profits back into his production business. While the fest's best-attended year, 2020, generated about $16,000 in profit, Royer said he's lost money across the event's 11-year run. Festival expenses include venue rentals, performance fees and flights for traveling talent, advertising, insurance, and paying musicians, tech workers, security and ushers. Royer's partner, Karen Dorey, helps him with logistics. Only headliners are paid, while other artists pay $40 to apply to perform. Royer acknowledged that can be a tough sell, so he provides performers with professional headshots and high-definition photos and videos of their acts — resources he hopes will help them land paid gigs in the future. "For me to be able to pay all 150 performers, the cost of this festival would go up incredibly," Royer said. "So would the ticket price, and then we would [in] no way be able to pull…