A collection of pleasure products, goods, and services found in Panama City, Panama, curated by pleasure concierge Deborah Porter, with sensual articles and essays.
A Childhood Spent Watching the Curtain
Long before there was a festival, there was a little girl in Panama who couldn't stop scouring through books and magazines that showcased glamourous models and sensual dancers, who used beauty, attire and movement to seduce, entice, and more importantly tell stories.
That early fascination with movement, glamour, and the theater of it all fueled Lust’s creativity. This became the catalyst behind her first small stage shows and burlesque performances beginning in 2013—shows such as Tasseled Tease Burlesque, Atomic Cabaret, and Las Vegas-based Lujuria. But the idea of a larger production never left her mind. Nevertheless, Panama is home, so this where she decided to plant something that didn't exist yet.
Today, Lust considers herself a ‘made in Panama’, queer, mixed-race Latina who splits her life between Las Vegas and Panama City — two cities that, on paper, couldn't be more different, but that both run on the same fuel: spectacle, nightlife, and reinvention.
Building the first Panama Burlesque Festival wasn't as simple as booking a venue and selling tickets. Lust was introducing an artistic production that much of Panama hadn't seen up close; one that was wrapped in cultural assumptions, misconceptions, and, honestly, a lot of resistance (at one point, Christians even show up to protest the shows). Finding entertainers willing to perform, convincing venues to host the show, and getting an audience to fill seats and understand burlesque as art rather than forbidden spectacle for shock's sake — all of it had to be built from scratch. So, she kept going, show by show, year by year, until the PBF found its footing, discovered exceptional entertainers, and a hungry audience.
Seven Years In Almost a decade later, the Panama Burlesque Festival isn't just surviving — it's a fixture in the community, and it's grown into something Lust didn't have access to in those early years – a global reach. Performers from all over the world, now travel to Panama specifically to be part of the spectacular production, and the influx of Expats into Panama has helped spread the word.
And the festival is intentional about who gets to be on that stage. Lust has made inclusivity a non-negotiable part of PBF's identity — mixed race, drag and straight, plus size and thin, every ‘body’ and background represented under the same lights. Lust used burlesque as a healing balm for her prior depression about her own body image issues; eventually learning to truly embrace every curve. Lust has coupled her drive with her unwavering commitment to PBF’s inclusivity, as a way to help others transform negative body image into creating kick-ass performers.
Lust says, “From the moment of its founding, my biggest mission was to create a festival stage that welcomed people from different cultures and heritage, all genders, all bodies and with no age limit. A stage where you could see all the diverse ways of presenting your story, a stage where you could see that burlesque is so much more than just a beautiful costume—it is breathing art. The Panama Burlesque Festival is a hub where people from different walks of life can learn and grow together—an exchange where we create bonds and memories to show people that all bodies are beautiful!
That same vision has carried her beyond Panama's borders. Lust is now a regular presenter at the Erotic Art Festival (AEFEST) in Bogotá, Colombia. Solidifying that, what she built has earned her place in history as part of a much bigger movement reshaping how Latin America talks about sensuality, erotic art, and body imagery.
Seven years ago, burlesque in Panama was a hard sell. And although Panama City still lags behind other major Latin American cities, thanks largely to Lust’s persistence, today it's part of a broader cultural shift — one where erotic and sensual art is being claimed, celebrated, and produced within the region rather than imported from elsewhere.
If you ask Amber Lust what keeps her doing this, year after year, against every obstacle, and the answer probably comes back to that little girl who dreamed of watching the beautiful women in books and magazines come alive on the stage she built so an audience could see them. That dream is keeping the art of burlesque alive!