Alaska Thunderfuck, Alexis Mateo, Chad Michaels, Gia Gunn, Laganja Estranja, Ongina, Pandora Boxx and Shea Couleé all answered our burning question.
"What does DragCon mean to you?" is a question that both separated and united the queens who answered it. Each had their own separate connection to the event, but all were united in labeling RuPaul's DragCon their chance to connect with fans.
Alaska Thunderfuck
(Season 5; All Stars 2 Winner)
Photo: DerekPlease.com
"I love DragCon so much, and since it started I thought, "this is going to be huge," because it gives people a place to come together where we are breaking down gender a little bit. We can be ourselves and can express ourselves - and literally everybody is so happy today. I’m so happy to be a part of it."
Alexis Mateo
(Season 3; All Stars)
Photo: DerekPlease.com
"DragCon is a collectible edition of the best of the best. It is what it is. It’s art, dreams, it’s magic all in one place. It’s all I can tell you. It’s my first DragCon experience ever. It has been amazing and I can’t wait for tomorrow. It’s only going to be an amazing weekend. It looks to be a magnificent event. I’m going to remember it for years to come; it’s going to get bigger and better all the time."
Chad Michaels
(Season 4; All Stars Winner)
Photo: DerekPlease.com
"It’s all about the fans, this is our one time of the year to meet people who don’t get to come to the shows necessarily. There’s a younger set, the kids; the people who don’t go to drag shows."
Gia Gunn
(Season 6)
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"For me personally, DragCon is a place to come and be yourself, to come and express yourself... no fucks given and no looking back, and not being scared of being judged as this is a place of artists; free spirits and being yourself. So for me, I also love having an opportunity of meeting all our fans being themselves and being a community."
Laganja Estranja
(Season 6)
Photo: DerekPlease.com
"DragCon is an awesome place for people to get together from all different walks of life to come, and be creative ,and meet one another and vibe out on drag. So I think that it is a great thing, because that is what we do for a living, drag. So it's incredible that we have a place like this, a convention like this to come together and see each other."
Ongina
(Season 1; All Stars)
Photo: DerekPlease.com
"DragCon means a celebration of being together with our friends and family, and just really spreading love, light and being really positive this weekend. It is really great seeing all of the different types of demographics that are here, and the age groups. So for me, we come here for the fans, we come here to make money, but really we come here for just experiencing something so much more grand than that."
Pandora Boxx
(Season 2; All Stars)
"I’ve been doing drag for a long time, since 1812, and so for me it means drag has come so far that we have a convention - a successful convention - that keeps getting bigger. It’s amazing to see how far drag has come and how many people embrace it."
Shea Couleé
(Season 9)
76.9k Likes, 712 Comments - Shea Couleé (@sheacoulee) on Instagram: "💐✨Day #2 @rupaulsdragcon LA. ✨💐"
"DragCon is such an amazing experience, I love it because I really love meeting the fans, and I really love creating an experience for all the fans. At least with my booth, I just love to sit down and get to know them, and set a really personal moment. With a club meet and greet, it’s really rushed because we have a tight window of time. So this is where I have my ideal meet and greet, and get to create a safe place for me and my fans to meet each other. Not only that, it’s great for the community. We are all under one roof. I get to see all my amazing sisters, because we are all touring so we don’t get to see each other that often. Fans that become friends online get to meet each other here. It’s such an amazing gathering, I love it so much."
Photo: DerekPlease.com
We also asked Alexis Michelle (Season 9) what DragCon means to her, but unfortunately our audio file of the interview was corrupted. She gave a lovely answer about being able to meet her fans in person and connect with friends.
Special thank you to RuPaul's DragCon and World of Wonder for giving us the opportunity to cover their Los Angeles 2018 convention. Buy tickets to RuPaul's DragCon NYC 2018 here.
What does drag in general mean to you? Tell us! Email ohay@icloud.com or contact @DerekPlease on any social platform.