WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE, one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world and a wildly popular stage show, comes to Europe this October.
The twice-monthly podcast, created two years ago by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, has topped the iTunes charts in 9 different countries. It remains a fixture in the top 10 US podcasts and a cult hit the world over. In the past year, Night Vale has also become an equally popular touring live show, performing dozens of sold out shows across the US and Canada in 2014. Now it is finally coming across the Atlantic.
Welcome to Night Vale tours to 16 European cities this October with a never-before-released episode written specifically for the stage ("The Librarian") starring Cecil Baldwin and featuring British singersongwriter Mary Epworth.
"We started doing live shows in different US cities," said Cranor. "And as we would announce more shows, we would get a lot of emails and messages from people in London and Helsinki and Munich asking why aren't we in their cities? And it was a great question. We have a huge fan base there, so it's really thrilling to get to bring Night Vale to Europe finally and, of course, to tour with Mary, who's an amazing musician."
Described as a local news with a twist of Twin Peaks, Welcome to Night Vale is a hypnotic and darkly funny show centered around community updates from the small desert town of Night Vale. It features local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.
"We didn't want to make a podcast that sounded like all the other podcasts we were listening to," explains Fink. "I came up with this idea of a town where every conspiracy theory was true, and people just accepted that as normal life."