Press

August 23, 2003

Getting Wiggy With It

By Kiki Mason

Glamazons Revive A Classic Drag Bash

	Backstage, the stunning and sultry Sharon Needles (left) and Sultana (right) prepare to wig out. photo: Mary Altaffer

If you don’t have any place to wear your pink boa, 7-inch platform heels, or sky-high two-toned beehive wig, join Lady Bunny and her friends at Wigstock today.
Wigstock – “the world’s most celebrated drag-oriented pansexual extravaganza” –returns with a new attitude and heads back to its roots at Tompkins Square Park as part of the east Village’s five day counterculture bash, the HOWL! Festival.
One night in 1985 drag star Lady Bunny and partner Scott Lifshutz and other scenesters, six packs in hand, descended on the park after the Avenue A club Pyramid closed for the evening. ‘The Pyramid Club throughout the 80’s was a hot bed for everything from drag queens to performance artists to rock bands,” says the fabulous Lady Bunny, who appears on this Sunday’s episode of “Sex And The City.”
“These hard core rock bands would get their $25 permits to perform in the old bandshell and play these horrible half hour long songs. After a night of drinking we decided we could do better,” she laughs.
“It was clear we had hit upon something. It was a carnival atmosphere that just grew bigger and bigger.” Says Lady Bunny, who lived on Fifth Street and Avenue A for years.
In 1995, for the 10th anniversary, Wigstock moved to a pier in what is now Hudson River Park. The event attracted some 30,000 preeners and a feature documentary film was made.
The final Wigstock took place in 2001, a casualty to poor weather and mounting costs.
Until HOWL! Festival Organizers came calling.
Today some true legends of drag, as well as the next generation of cross-dressing divas, will take the stage: Lypsinka, TABBOO! The Dueling Bankheads, Dean Johnson, Murry Hill, Sugga Pie Coco, Miss Diandra and some 22 other performers.
“There are just a bunch of really creative people who are doing intelligent drag. In NEW York, it’s taken to a whole new level.”
But the return to the east Village is bittersweet.
“It’s sad that the funky artsy, funky types can’t afford to live in Manhattan anymore, or even Williamsburg for that matter,” she adds. “But at least for this weekend it’s going to be a return to the good old days. I think it’s going to be a hoot!”