By: Megan Freeman
It’s that time of year again – the Drag Show is coming to Fitchburg State University! The event is one of the biggest annual events held by the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. For anyone who doesn’t know what drag is, it’s when professional queens – typically gay men – perform as women, decked out in gorgeous costumes and wigs. The queens can get rather raunchy, but that’s half of the fun of watching their performance!
So when you see a table across from the entrance to the dining hall labeled “DRAG RACE”, be sure to stop and look again. This symbolizes one of the most anticipated parts of the annual show and helps to build the hype.
The drag race contestants are nominated students and staff of Fitchburg State University. Each one of them has a colorful little bucket with their face and name on it, and the three contestants who raise the most money in donations by the day of the show (Thursday March 31st) are taken up on stage during the performances and the queens deck them out in drag!
The contestants this year are Alan Parker, Mark Anthony, Merrick Henry, Hank Parkinson, Nathaniel Rojas, Steven Desmaires, and Jordan Krozy.
 
So far donations are coming in from all over and anything is accepted – from twenty dollar bills down to pennies and anywhere in between. The money all goes to a scholarship the GSA is initiating, and it’s definitely worth it to see three of these contenders take the stage and perform a ‘lip syncing’ battle while they dance and try to impress the audience. The person who, during the show, gets the most cheers and screams of enjoyment, is declared the official winner of the drag race, while the other two are second and third place winners.
The table can also be seen across from the info desk in Hammond from about 10 AM to 3 PM on Monday through Friday, from now until the day of the show. In Holmes, the table is typically set up from 4 PM until 6 PM. At any of these times while passing by the tables, you can drop money into the brightly colored cups to see any of the selected students and faculty nominated go up on stage during the show in March.
This year for the drag show, the title is officially Dungeons and Drag Queens. The decorations will have a medieval theme, but it’s not only focused on the game Dungeons and Dragons (though that is where the name comes from). Decorations are based primarily on a medieval theme. Tickets for the show are available at the info desk in Hammond, at $5 for students and $10 for non-students. Feel free to bring friends and family along for a great night.
At the drag show, all 7 participants in the drag race will be there and donations will still be collected to find the winners.
“The race is really up in the air until the end. A lot of people drop the big bucks at the show [itself]” according to a representative from the club, seated at the table. “So we might have someone in the lead now, but that can easily change over the course of even a day.”
“See the big reveal March 31st in the Rec Center at 7 pm! Doors open at 6:30!”