WigOut! 2026 - The Day of the Show

On Thursday June 4th, I rolled back into Atlanta, a good 14 years after I moved away. I lived in Atlanta for a little over 7 years and forged some beautiful friendships. Back then I experienced a sense of community that I rarely felt in The Bay Area, and couldn't wait to rekindle those connections.

The WigOut event space was in the East Atlanta Community Garden, near the heart of East Atlanta Village. The location was key to spirit of the festival, to celebrate the community of East Atlanta Village, while also supporting 3 local charities.

I stayed about 7 minutes away from the event space and Mary’s in East Atlanta, where I DJed for 6 years out there.

It's the Day of the Show, Y'all

The day of the show, I arrived at the event space and helped with setting up, and getting my Queen Preparedness Station™️ ready to assist the performers during the event. I brought ice water, a large handheld salon mirror, and a large plastic drag fan to help the queens cool off before their time to sparkle.

Wigged and Ready to Shine

Considering that I would be helping stage manage the event, and work as a runner for the festival, I got a mullet wig to lean into my concert roadie role for the show. Behind me is the Paper Moon photo op that was brilliantly conceived by our crew.

The Atlanta heat was not as fierce as my home swampland of Louisiana, but I was glad to have my drag fan handy to provide a cooling breeze to anyone in need.

I created a group text chat for our performers, and messaged them on the day of the fest, and shared that pic of me, asking them to check in with me as soon as they got there. I shared the run of the show screenshots I took of our shared Google Sheet, and asked them to arrive 1 hour before their showtime.

Capturing the Magic

Before the show started, and the queens arrived, I brought a handheld gimbal and recorded some video loops of the festival grounds, as they were getting setup. I wasn't sure how we would be capturing the event, so I came prepared with my gimbal to capture as much as I could before the show.

One of the first performers to arrive was Bebe Gaga, as a vision in pink. She was a delight, even though I called her by the wrong performer name.

Lesson learned, when working with performers, introduce yourself, and then allow them to introduce themselves. She was gracious, but lesson learned. Don't assume someone's identity, even when you have responsibilities.

Later on, Mary Lou Pearl showed up. She was performing in the show and representing Brave Trails, which supports LGBTQ+ youth with leadership-focused summer camps where they can find affirmation, mentorship, and belonging. Brave Trails operates across California, New York, and Georgia, building the next generation of LGBTQ+ changemakers.

DJ Check & Setlist

Before we started the festival, I worked with the DJ Brad Gibson, to make sure all of the tracks imported into his DJ software correctly. And they did. The work I put into rewriting the metadata of the tracks, and formatting them as a compilation album paid off.

The performers' tracks imported in the show lineup order, so all he had to do was cue up each track after the next, instead of hunting down each track by the original recording artist.

Even though I had to rewrite the metadata several times, this work helped smooth things over on the day of the show, when there are many other priorities to juggle.

It's Showtime, Synergy

WigOut was set to start at 1pm, and we started the show on-time. There was a small audience at the start, but they were happy to be out, and checking out the festival grounds and vendors.

Ellasaurus Rex, our emcee & the Dragmother of East Atlanta Village, kicked things off by welcoming everyone to the festival, and introducing the three organizations we were supporting with our fundraising efforts.

1. Brave Trails
2. SnapCo. - Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
3. GLAHR - Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights

Then Mary Lou Pearl hosted an Arts & Crafts hour at the Brave Trails booth, and Outline ATL hosted line dance lessons to Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe!

Certified Queen Wrangler

Once the show started, I knew that I wouldn't have much time to capture performances, so I fit that in when I could. Fortunately though, I didn't have to wrangle queens towards the stage much. I always had a pack of performers, 3 queens deep, ready to go onstage.

I was so proud of the performers. Most of them were getting ready at Mary's, about a 7 min walk in heels away from the venue. They all took accountability for the times they should arrive at the venue, and I rarely had to do a roll call to get queens ready to perform.

I believe part of this was due to my making sure that I established relationships with the performers prior to the day of the show. I didn't know a single one of them before joining the WigOut org.

I started with individual outreach per-performer, and then migrated chats into a text chat thread with all of them, once I got the lineup of the show together. This way I could provide group announcements, and foster a spirit of teamwork for the show.

Highlights

Mary Lou Pearl

Even though I had my hands full with running the show, I captured some of the performances I knew would be outstanding.

I was able to take videos of Mary Lou Pearl's Martina McBride mix of When God-Fearing Women Get the Blues, Independence Day and Wild Angels. It was magnificent.

She Started on Stage, then worked the crowd, and took this triumphant post on top of the picnic table during Independence Day. As I was filming during this moment, I got goosebumps. You could feel the energy of the crowd rising high to match the message of defiance in the song and performance. She slayed.

Panda Berry

And then there's Panda Berry. When I was gathering images from her Insta feed for our social media posts, I ran across Panda Berry and was floored by her makeup artistry.

Then I reached out to her about getting her music track, and found that she was doing Rose's Turn. 🥀

Now for those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the track, this is a commanding song. It's the finale song of Act 1 of Gypsy, which is the female musical lead equivalent of playing Hamlet or King Lear. It's serious work.

Since it closes out Act 1 of Gypsy, I placed Panda's performance as the Act 1 closer of WigOut, before announcing the DJ break. It was meant to be.

At the start of the number, she didn't even take the stage. She confidently strutted out from backstage, right into the audience, and played to the crowd the whole time.

Rose’s Turn is the explosive climax of Gypsy, where Rose finally confronts her lifelong frustration, regret, and hunger for recognition after devoting everything to making her daughters stars. It's basically Rose's nervous breakdown staged as a vaudeville act.

There are emotional twists and turns during the song, and she rewrites her own history as if she was the real star, not her daughter.

And since her daughter left her, now it's her time. It's Rose's Turn.

For a musical number, it's the pinnacle of emotional depth of character. But as a drag number it's a tour-de-force of translating the emotion of the moment to an audience unfamiliar with the events that lead up to this performance.

Going into the festival, this was the performance I was most looking forward to, and Panda gave her all; left no crumbs.

Parton Waters

While working with Parton Waters, the preeminent Dolly Parton drag artist of Georgia, she mentioned that she was getting together a clogging & puppetry number. Color me intrigued. Clogging being a distinctly Southern art form from Appalachia, and who doesn't love puppets & Dolly? So I couldn't wait to see what she had in store for us.

She took the stage in a floor-length Country Gown, with long sleeves, reminiscent of the 1960's golden age of Country Music, as the genre gained more attention. She performed LeAnn Rimes' I want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart.

The tearaway skirt hid one of her talents, as her reveal led into her clogging number, and an explosion of Southern joyous Pride.

The crowd went wild with the thunderous clacking of clogs on the metal stage.

Then she exchanged her clogs for silver stilettos, and a grey-haired hand puppet, and performed the Dolly Parton and Ray Benson duet, Leave That Cowboy.

She ditched the puppet and left the stage to do some crowd work, and allow the audience to bask in her splendor and tip the dolls. This was to Dolly Parton's Why'd You Come in There Lookin' Like That? Also let's give it up for stilettos in the dirt. 👏👏👏 That's dedication, that's drag.

We're On Time??

At this point in the show, we were well into the Second Act, and my priorities were on the headliners, and wrapping up the show.

I was positioned next to Brad the DJ, and he looked over at me with wide-eyed astonishment, 'We're exactly on time?!?!'. I looked down at my sheets, and he was right, we were exactly where I predicted we would be in the lineup when I put it together.

While this was my first time stage managing a festival of performers, I've been doing theater and events for well over 25 years. And I knew going into it that live festivals are their own challenge when it comes to getting performers ready for the stage, and keeping it all together.

I became a rock that anyone could come to with a problem, and I quickly solved it with cool confidence. And if I couldn't, at least I tried to direct them to someone else who could help.

As we age in the queer community we do not become irrelevant, despite what our youth-obsessed culture would believe. It’s our responsibility to become pillars to hold up our community, and lead the way for the upcoming generations. It’s a cycle of mentorship that I recognized early when I came out in the mid-90’s. And now it’s my turn to offer my care and support.

Several organizers came to me with similar feedback, 'We're right on time?!?'.

This was a very proud moment for myself, but also the performers. The only reason we were on time was that they became accountable for themselves and showed up when I asked them, one hour before their number.

And our timeliness was in no small effort by the emcee, and dear friend, Ellasaurus Rex. She made it look so easy, but she was the gracious Mother overseeing everything and keeping her babies in-line.

Headliners

Atlanta Gay Mens Chorus

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The headliners were outstanding. We had about 60 members of the Atlanta Gay Mens Chorus come out to perform Elton John's The Bitch is Back. This was a powerful performance. There were chorus members on stage and around the foot of the stage, singing unmiced into the audience. There is a distinct sound of a gay men's chorus that lifts the souls of the LGBTQ+ community.

write a paragraph or two about the importance of national gay men’s choruses, and the fundraising efforts of them

Your Aunt Roz

Then we had local Atlanta legend Rosser "Your Aunt Roz" perform, who doesn't perform often these days, so it was an honor to have her.

Rosser became part of the camp collective consciousness by playing DeAundra Peek on the groundbreaking cable access variety program The American Music Show, which ran from 1981-2005. Where she frequently evangelized her admiration of Vienna Sausages, pronouncing them "Vi-eee-ners".

Her contributions to Camp and Queer culture cannot be overstated. Before we had Drag Race, Kids in the Hall, or any skit-based camp content, we had DeAundra Peek. She was a window into an avant-garde style of intentionally demented comedy, underlying a razor-sharp wit. She spoke to Southern experience, glamor, and New Wave sensibility.

We all owe DeAundra a debt of gratitude showing us that we shouldn't take life too seriously, and to pause and appreciate the beautiful dumb things.

We were honored by her presence in the show, and wanted to extend the appreciation by presenting her with the DeAundra Peek 2026 WigOut Legendary Wig Matriarch Lifetime Achievement Award.

I was backstage after she had received the award, and she was looking at the award with absolute wonder, slowly turning it in her hands; shiny surfaces reflecting in the sun. She was moved by the award.

To some this award may look silly, but to her this represented validity for her work and admiration by her community.

She was talking to one of the coordinators and I overheard her say, "I haven't won anything since the 90's when I won Southern Voice’s (Precursor to Georgia Voice) 1994‘s “Most Community Minded Entertainer".

She was active with Queer Nation, Act Up and Pride with all of her proceeds going to the particular group the event was held for.

After the show we received a text from her with this image saying that she placed her award in her living room. Thank you DeAundra, we love you.

Lady Bunny

Lady Bunny was the final act of the show, so I was starting to get anxious about post-show cleanup. So I only saw some of Lady Bunny perform.

We would not have been emboldened to throw the WigOut festival without Lady Bunny's history of activism since the 1980's, in the throws of the AIDS epidemic. She pioneered queer activism in creating safe spaces for the community by co-founding the Wigstock drag festival in New York over the labor day weekend of 1984.

Bunny began her drag life in Atlanta, before heading to New York, and became the first wave of drag entertainers, along with RuPaul, Lipsynka, and Coco Peru. She's done extensive work in fundraising for LGBTQ+ non-profits, and preserving nightlife as a vital community hub.

While her humor can be divisive, she upholds the drag tradition of reading as an artform of insult, and a way to provide tribute and criticism to the target of her comedy.

It's also a reminder that we shouldn't take everything literally and with such seriousness. Comedy by nature is provocative, it's by design. And it's also not for everyone. While her approach is brash, unapologetic and anachronistic, it's nuanced and steeped in drag culture and tradition. Take it or leave it.

Wrapping Up the Festival

After Bunny, the Seed and Feed Marching Band performed for us, and lead a march through the streets of East Atlanta Village, bringing our drag into the streets. It was a joyous expression of community and signaled the end of the festival.

I was honored to be part of this festival, and working with the crew on this event. It brought me back home to Atlanta, surrounded by chosen family who came out of the woodworks to support the festival, and a few who came out to see me.

After feeling isolated and anonymous in the Bay Area, it made me realize that Atlanta is my home, and I'm working on relocating from Louisiana back to Atlanta where I belong. Chosen family is powerful and essential to queer life. There's validation in community, and being around folks to see and understand you, is an essential part of LGBTQ+ existence.