The two curators don’t look normal. So normal in the sense that you imagine a drag artist to be. Bridge Markland has shaved his head and wears a tattered Crusader cape. And Ruby Tuesday has made up her angular features and stuck on a pink, glittering mustache. She introduces herself as a “professional gender clown.” And if anyone was wondering about drag kings like her (or him) and what kind of new trick this is, she would counter that “trouser rolls” have been around in the theater for ages.
But it’s certainly remarkable: This year, for the first time, the “Go Drag!” festival is being held in a “Munich” edition, and the focus is not on the game with the full femininity of dazzling “drag queens”, which has long since become part of the main evening TV program “. Rather, the focus is on drag kings, who showcase male behavior and appearance, and drag quings, i.e. gender-hybrid fictional characters. Ultimately, the festival aims to shed light on as many facets of this subculture as possible: over five days, from May 1st to 5th, with 30 events at eight locations.
“Munich has a lively and diverse drag scene,” said the second mayor of Munich and patron of the festival, Dominik Krause, on Thursday at the program presentation in the Gasteig HP8. The city supports “Go Drag! Munich” with 50,000 euros from the budget for gender equality. According to Krause, you can already see from the list of institutions involved – from the Gasteig to the city library to the Kunsthalle and the NS Documentary Center – that “Munich has been waiting for a festival like this.”
“Drag Race Germany” winner Pandora Nox teaches the participants of her workshop her best moves.
(Photo: Pixelcoma)
In Berlin, Brigde Markland started “Go Drag!” 2002. “One My later,” says Ruby Tuesday, it has now arrived here. This was initiated by Jan Geiger and Judith Huber from the Pathos Theater. Something has changed in the naturalness of queer arts, says Geiger, which is reflected in the fact that the festival doesn’t just take place in niche places. “Have we reached the mainstream yet?” His rhetorical question is perhaps unnecessary if you think back to the protests against a drag reading for children in Munich in 2023, which were also exploited by the AfD. “I think there’s still a long way to go,” said Geiger, “and maybe that’s not the goal.” What is more important is “being able to be different without fear.”
Co-curator Bridge Markland shows, among other things, her puppet playback piece “Nathan in the Box”.
(Photo: Bernd Ott)
The program is definitely diverse: Ruby Tuesday, the “drag daddy” of the Munich scene, has, for example, put together a special edition of Munich’s “only men’s impersonator revue Kings of Munich” (May 3, Hurdy Gurdy). She also recommends the two special tours by style icon Perry Stroika through the “Viktor & Rolf” show at the Kunsthalle (May 4). Bridge Markland will, among other things, present “Nathan the Wise” as a “one-woman doll transformation playback show” with the Lessing text and pop quotes from Antelope gear to Frank Zappa (May 5th, Gasteig HP8). Majic Dyke from Kenya explains LGBTQ rights in her homeland in a reading (May 3, Pathos). Claire Dowie, 68 years old and from London, transforms into a man during a biting monologue in her classic “H to he” (May 3, Gasteig). And Cora Frost, who once grew into a chanson legend in Munich, returns from Berlin as Peter Frost for a concert (May 4th, Schwere Reiter).
The film “Man for a day” will be shown on May 5th in the projector hall of the Gasteig HP8.
(Photo: Go Drag Munich)
Now the title is “Go Drag!” but definitely to be understood as a request or encouragement. So if you want to play with gender roles yourself, you can get make-up tips from Alex Cameltoe (May 3rd), learn the “best moves” from “Drag Race Germany” winner Pandora Nox (May 1st) and can try out drag -Flea market on May 5th in Pathos with the necessary fiddling.
Go Drag! Munich, May 1st to 5th, program below godragmunich.de