Wigstock curls up and dyes - Brief Article

A look back at the cultural impact of the popular annual drag festival as its demise in New York nears

Dingdong, the Wig is dead? It's a sorrowful refrain, especially in light of Mayor Giuliani's successful vendetta to annihilate anything fun in Manhattan, but Wigstock--the city's internationally recognized, Woodstock-inspired annual celebration of drag, dance music, and queer entertainment--is indeed coming to an end after 17 years.

"It's just like losing your best friend--that you haven't seen in a while," laments Lady Kier, who performed at several Wigstocks while with Deee-Lite and who currently resides in London. "I'm really sad--it's what we've all come to accept in New York. One lightning bolt can do a lot of damage, and Giuliani's done it. But I'm really anticipating moving back to New York next year when he's out, because you can't keep [us] down for that long."

Actually, Lady Bunny, who cofounded Wigstock and co-organized it with painter Scott Lifshutz, admits a more substantial force is culpable for Wigstock's demise: Mother Nature. Two years in a row of torrential rains--"turning it into Wetstock, featuring Lady Runny"--and the resulting loss of attendance helped to amass a $25,000 debt.

"It's depressing! Someone does a fantastic number, it ends, and there's no clapping because everybody's clutching umbrellas!" Bunny recalls. "In Wigstock: The Movie, I say, `Mother Nature must be a drag queen, because look at this [beautiful] weather.' Now she must have turned into a very bitter, old, and crabby drag queen." Bunny pauses, and adds, joshingly, "Oh wait--maybe Mother Nature is Lypsinka!"

Wigstock began in 1984 as a free celebration of East Village underground queer culture, held in the area's Tompkins Square Park. By the '90s it became an annual pilgrimage for fun-loving wig wearers the world over and moved west to Pier 54, with an admission price instituted to cover rising production costs (under $1,000 to mount the first Wigstock but $118,000 for the 2001 edition). Late "scene" greats like John Sex, Leigh Bowery, and cofounder Ethel Eichelberger have graced Wigstock's stages, as have today's hippest pink-friendly personalities: John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig, Kiki and Herb, RuPaul, the B-52's, and Jackie Beat.

"I'm really going to miss slapping on two hours worth of makeup, a polyester wig, panty hose, girdle, bra, and a costume, and then trudging out in heels in the middle of a New York summer day to perform for free," Beat muses.

Bunny insists that Wigstock leaves behind a legacy--the festival has already been immortalized in Barry Shils's eponymous 1995 film and in a recent CD compilation, and there are plans to release a Wigstock book and possibly another film--this year's event will be extensively videotaped. There will also be traveling editions of Wigstock, including one in Chicago on August 31. "I've always wanted to do it in Miami to coincide with the dance music conference," Bunny adds. "But it can't be set up so we lose money. That's retarded."

As for the final New York Wigstock on September 2? Bunny promises to "blow it out with a bang." Featured acts include Rufus Wainwright, Book of Love, Deborah Harry, Girlina, Flotilla DeBarge, Kevin Aviance, and Obie-winning actor-singer John Kelly performing his traditional (and very moving) closing number, "Wigstock," which is lifted from Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."

"I may shed a tear," Kelly admits. "But it's hard to sing and cry at the same time."

Ferber contributes to Time Out New York and other publications.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Liberation Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group