Eight years ago, local drag queen Hinky Dinky recalled Fredericton drag shows happening just once or twice a month.
Now, drag shows happen nearly every single weekend, with all sorts of drag performers – from queens, kings, bio queens and more – popping up and taking the stage.
With drag’s popularity growing exponentially in the last few years, it was inevitable for someone to bring a drag race style competition to the scene — which is just what Hinky Dinky is doing.
On March 7, the very first Fredericton’s Drag Race competition debuted at Monarch night club, with the second night of competition happening March 21 and the Grand Finale scheduled for April 4.
Hinky Dinky explained that her and partner Freeda Whales started planning the event about six months ago.
“We were just saying, ‘How do we give an opportunity to people here that may not get it?’ Because there’s good talent here, so it just doesn’t make sense for it not to be on display,” she said.
Fredericton’s Drag Race is named after the popular Rupaul’s Drag Race franchise. The show has gained worldwide popularity in the mainstream and has inspired 16 international spin-off competitions, including Canada’s Drag Race which brings together drag artists from across the country.
Despite Canada’s Drag Race going into its sixth season, there has yet to be a New Brunswick performer cast on the show. There have only been two artists on the show from the Maritimes, specifically St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Hinky Dinky and Freeda Whales, who have both auditioned for the show, were partly inspired to organize the Fredericton competition to highlight what the city has to offer.
“All the big cities, they get on the show. And I feel like all those small cities don’t get the representation that they really deserve,” said Hinky Dinky. “So that was a big motivator for doing this.”
The competition, comprised of 10 drag artists split into two groups, works like the original franchise it’s named after — contestants walk a themed runway, show off a unique talent and compete in a lip sync battle for a panel of judges.
The top two performers of the night face off in a lip sync battle to determine the winner and both artists earn a spot in the grand finale, where they are competing for a $1,000 prize sponsored by local business Cannaqueens.
Aside from wanting to showcase local talent, Hinky Dinky said she hoped to facilitate more queer joy in the community.
“I also love to celebrate joy just in general … queer joy is something that we should really work to cultivate and be proud of,” she said. “Even when times are tough that means we have to work even harder to make these moments of joy happen.”
And queer joy was overflowing at the first Fredericton’s Drag Race event on Mar. 7, as attendee Brie Sparks noted how wonderful it was to see so much excitement for the competition.
“It was such a wonderful experience of queer solidarity,” they said. “It was fantastic to see Monarch basically wall to wall — there was very little room to move around. We were all just there together, experiencing this, supporting it and loving it.”
Sparks said their favourite part of the night was the final lip sync battle between finalists Evelyn Nox and Dollie Rancher, performing to Abracadabra by Lady Gaga. Evelyn Nox, who Sparks noted had impressive physicality on stage, took the win that night.
Aside from the lip sync, Sparks loved the talent portion of the show for the unique variety each performer brought to the stage. While they didn’t know many performers before the competition, they were excited to be introduced to some new artists.
“It ranged from some genuinely moving performances to incredibly funny, well scripted comedic bits, which was great,” they said. “I’m not too sure of many names and faces, but that’s kind of the beauty of this. Now I really know 10, 15 more [drag artists] that are local.”
Coming from a small town in Maine, Sparks said there were very few opportunities to connect with drag culture growing up.
Now living in Fredericton after graduating from St. Thomas University last year, Sparks has been trying to attend more local drag shows and put themself in these “nice, welcoming queer spaces.”
“I think drag is such a beautifully specific kind of art form,” they said. “I feel like it is one of the few art forms you can say, ‘I am my expression of art. I am my expression of beauty or comedy or horror,’ or whatever the artist is trying to get across.”
“Coming from the States with everything going on right now, to be surrounded by that kind of beautiful defiance is a really important thing in my life.”
After attending the opening night of the competition, Sparks is looking forward to the Fredericton’s Drag Race Grand Finale on April 4. They said the experience of a drag show is like no other.
“Any art drives an expression of the depth of humanity. And so to be able to reach out and interact directly with the art that you are consuming that you’re kind of removed from usually, it was an incredible experience.”
