Fabian and I went to Wigstock on Saturday 1 September 2018. I wore a blue spiked wig. Fabian wore his Kaz Kaan wig from last year’s Comic Con along with a Lesotho hat we got from our summer trip to South Africa. Wigstock was a drag festival in NYC which ran from sometime in the 80s to sometime in the mid 2000s. This event was marketed as a revival. Fabian and I went and had fun. Fabian had been a performer in previous Wigstock events and knew all of the performers who were around in that era.
The context of Wigstock is different now as compared to the original run because society has changed so much so quickly. Previously Wigstock operated in the context of homophobia and transphobia. Homosexuality was still in the United States illegal through 2003, and even after legalization there was not uniform social acceptance. Since 2009 an American television show Ru Paul’s Drag Race has served to put drag performance in homes of all communities tapped into American media. The show was minor at first but now has become a gay undercurrent in the United States because it led to drag performers getting booked at all sorts of venues and established a celebrity circuit of performers who travel the country distributing that show’s perspective on drag as a cultural product. I do not know anything about the show specifically; I watched my first episode last September 2017 in Seattle when Fabian and I visited Evan and learned about the fanbase. Evidently this television show is defining the drag experience in the United States.
The show itself was excellent but unlike a typical stage show. The venue was Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, which is now an upscale entertainment district when just a few years ago it was still a fishmarket. Fabian said the promoters only began advertising the event a few weeks ago, which was strange considering that it was a top tier entertainer lineup. When we bought our tickets the website was advertising them for half price, which seems like an indication that the tickets were selling below capacity. When we go to the event it obviously had lots of extra space, and it was easy for anyone to be as close or far away from the stage as they liked. The show ran from about 2 till 10:30pm. We arrived at 4 and there was never a pause in performance. I think no performer had more than 20 minutes. Each performer only did one song or act. I was not timing anything, but in retrospect, I felt as if acts could have been 10 minutes then that was it. Drag is not easy to set up and for a short act to be on stage that demonstrates a high cost to book for a short act. While most acts were from NYC based performers, many of these performers were not NYC based and I got the idea that even NYC based ones might have suddenly and unexpectedly flown in for this in a break from their tour schedules. It seemed like an expensive venue, an expensive line-up, an unusual short use of big talent, and a performance which was not seeking to break even on audience cost as there was little effort to sell tickets.
With all the videography at the event I think that we were not audience members, but instead we were background extras in a documentary. Cameras were everywhere and I think the intent of the event was to archive whomever was still around from the last Wigstock era and to introduce the more recent generation. I do not recall seeing this kind of financial investment in drag in other contexts. While NYC has excellent drag shows, the norm is for them to be in shabby venues and rely on gratitude and the fans to have a nice show. In this case we were in a nice venue, and all the audio and lights worked, and the camera crew seemed highly professional, and seemingly there was no cost spared to get the right people on stage. It was strange to me to see so many performers so quickly do whatever was their characteristic piece.
Lady Bunny was the host. That was nice. Neil Patrick Harris seemed to be the person who got funding for this. He performed as Hedwig as the last act. To me, Hedwig seemed like one show from one culture and all the drag events seemed like another social circle and another culture. It seemed artificial to me to combine Hedwig and drag. Maybe the origins of Hedwig are in earlier NYC counterculture. Maybe also that in the future no one will see the difference between the Hedwig character or story and drag. Right now at this time the Hedwig numbers seemed out of place and if the funder was not Hedwig, then Hedwig would not have been invited to the performance. I can only guess that the funder wants to write himself into this history. If he produces an archive or secures funding for the event to be ongoing and develop then great. If this Wigstock is a one-off then I hope there is no confusion in the future that the meaning of Wigstock is quite different from the meaning of Hedwig. If anyone sees the video of Wigstock 2018 then notice that the Hedwig performance does not fit with the other acts.