While the common conception is that drag performers impersonate and parody pop culture, realheads know that it’s drag performers and underground queer artists that actually dictate every fad. As far as trend forecasting goes, New York Fashion Week is a bust compared to the beloved Brooklyn drag festival, Bushwig.
Now entering its 11th year, Bushwig— the spiritual successor to Wigstock — remains strong as a celebration of the punk spirit of the art form. This year’s weekend-long party was no exception, as the grand stage of The Knockdown Center was filled with drag of every style and genre.
Since whatever happens in drag is likely to be copied by the rest of culture, Bushwig is the perfect barometer for what’s going to be happening in mass culture writ large. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what was In and Out at this year’s festival:
IN:
“Slay”: “Werk” is out. “Slay” is in. As an adjective, verb, noun, or expletive, everyone under the age of 27 referred to literally everything as "[a] slay” — even if it wasn’t. Drag performer Pinwheel Pinwheel told me that, like other gay slang, the verbal usage of “slay” has moved from genuine to ironic and back to genuine again — meaning that even the people saying it don’t know whether they’re joking when they’re saying it. Anyway, we all better get used to hearing that word forever. Sorry, fellow geriatric millennials.
Goth: While last year one of the biggest trends at Bushwig was hypercolor, this year black is back. Maybe the kids are getting excited for Halloween a bit early, maybe everyone’s really vibing with a pervasive sense of hopelessness, or maybe half the festival was heading to the late night My Chemical Romance concert elsewhere in the city — but macabre and horror-inspired looks were taking center stage this year. While Brooklyn goth mainstays like Martyr, Miss Malice, and God Complex were obviously donning dark colors, the rising drag artist King Perkasex slayed (see what I did there) in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre look. Here are a few of my fav goth looks from the festival:
Non-binary drag + drag kings: The drag king collective known as The Cake Boys created their inaugural competition last summer, and ever since the Brooklyn drag scene has been veritably flooded with drag kings and things. Bushwig curators clearly see a lot of up-and-coming legendary potential in the masc-leaning performers and booked accordingly. Throughout Saturday and Sunday, drag kings offered some of the strongest numbers and got some of the biggest reactions. Non-binary looks abounded as well: femme-leaning looks were often completed with mustaches or dildos to keep things subversive. This new generation of drag artists are making an explicit statement in defiance of traditional gender roles — and we love to see it!
The Monkeypox Vaccine: Community health is a slay! (Am I doing this right?) Perhaps the most popular feature at this year’s Bushwig festivities was the booth giving out free vaccines with no questions asked. Big kudos to whoever made that happen — like, for real.
OUT:
Abstract / experimental drag: Many years ago, Lady Simon tied herself to a tree outside of Bushwig: this act of bondage was her performance. Those days seem mostly long gone. Both attendees and entertainers eschewed an older, more artsy style of drag once showcased by performers like Hystée Lauder and Untitled. While many younger artists certainly leaned towards the comedically absurd, a kind of (sometimes humorless) high-brow, avant-gardism seems to have taken a back seat to more accessible or more silly forms of drag.
“High glam” / “high drag”: Perhaps least present at Bushwig this year were traditional high femme looks that more casual observers commonly associate with drag. From what I could tell, Amanda Lepore was one of the few performers embodying an old-school sense of glamour: lipstick, rhinestones, and all. Maybe we’ve simply moved past more outdated ideas of drag, or maybe it’s just not on-trend right now. Who knows!
Beyoncé: Look, Beyoncé is never really out of fashion, but multiple people commented to me that they were expecting to hear every track off Renaissance played to death at Bushwig. But I only heard two Bey songs the entire weekend! Are people already sick of Mrs. Carter’s new album, or was everyone trying to avoid something so obviously expected?
Standout Performances:
Evangeline: It’s giving multi-level marketing scheme. After interrupting Venus, Eva shared her new product, a skincare line/nail polish remover, called C.U.N.T.S.S., with the crowd. She then encouraged the audience to join her in selling the item with a buy-in rate of $600. Eva’s actual, literal, biological mother appeared on stage to espouse the merits of C.U.N.T.S.S. (“I gave birth to her by spreading my C.U.N.T.S.S., so it came pretty natural to me!” Mama Eva later told me.)
Mauve: Lip syncing to “Newspaper” by Fiona Apple, Mauve officiated a wedding between a demon and an uncanny clone of himself — before enticing the doppelgänger away from matrimony and into a torrid kiss.
Menthol Menthol: Known for meandering, surreal monologues, Menthol gave a rambling, strange, and dreamlike spoken-word sermon on the power of having sandwiches for feet while Foster Just Foster and FKA Glitterbaby inexplicably played soccer behind him.
Paris L’Hommie: Lip syncing to “Frank Sinatra” by Miss Kittin (perhaps my favorite track of all time), The Mother of the Haus of Quench stripped from a fitted blazer and mask to nothing at all — but not before slowly pulling anal beads from her nether regions.
Mel 4Ever: Easily my favorite performance of the weekend was given by singer Mel 4Ever, who played cutesy, girly, hyperpop tracks about fucking her internet boyfriend and being peed on. The crowd thrashed and bopped in a light rain as she stripped naked and sang her cover of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails.
And finally, more looks I loved:
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