Body Heat Fashion Show: The Circus of Your Mind
About this Event
Join us on December 5th, 2026 for BODY HEAT: A multi-genre runway fashion show and interdisciplinary performance experience that celebrates body positivity, queer visibility, BIPOC artistry, and community connection. This vibrant event aims to support Columbus’s creatives, highlight bold fashion and local vendors, and invite you to get in touch with your own self power by dancing during our after-party with live music by Cosmic Colour.
BODY HEAT offers more than a night of style. We started as a dream to redefine an industry; a vision to reclaim the arts for the artists. And that’s where our name comes from: When someone moves, body heat is generated… and that’s what we are: a MOVEMENT to uplift local talent through paid compensation, portfolio-building photography, garment sales, dynamic exposure, community engagement, and to redefine the standard of what fashion events can be structued as and how the artists truly benefit from them.
Make sure to arrive when doors open! We will have local vendors selling art, fashion, and self care items, as well as immersive circus performers and costumed greeters over the full hour! Hosted at ‘The Sanctuary’, this event will be an ADA-inclusive and community-centered event.
BODY HEAT brings together artists, designers, interdisciplinary performers, and community members for an evening celebrating individuality, creative expression, and the people challenging conventions within the fashion industry. Beyond the runway, we create space for local small businesses and independent creatives to connect with new audiences and share their work with an engaged, art-minded community.
Our event is built around making creative opportunities more accessible and directly supporting the people who make our local arts scene thrive. To extend our missions beyond the runway, we’re grant-funded through the Greater Columbus Arts Council and are collaborating with community sponsors including SWACO and Central Outreach Wellness Center.
This year, we are rooting our theme in mental health awareness, visibility, and vulnerability. To support this mission, we are partnering with The Scatter Joy Project. This Columbus-based nonprofit's mission is to create a hope-filled community by dismantling the barriers around mental health, and they are especially invested in connecting our artist communities with their resources and events.
Show up, show out, shop, and come together for a night you’ll never forget where Fashion is the Fabric of Resistance!
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Doors Open and Marketplace Shopping: 6-7pm
Runway Fashion Show: 7-8:45
Live music + Dance Party by Cosmic Colour: 9pm
Event Close: 11pm
Cash bar avilable all night, 21+
Produced by:
Crimson Photography @crimson.photographyy
The Costume Emporium @The_Costume_Emporium
Sponsored by: GCAC, SWACO, Central Outreach Wellness Center
For any questions, please contact [email protected]
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 39.19

















