Published
10 months agoon
“Fresno’s Drag Festival: This Is Me!” will be held Saturday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 2101 N. Fruit Ave., in Fresno. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m., and the event will be noon to 4 p.m.
A spokesperson for the event was not available for comment Wednesday. According to the event’s Facebook page, the special guests will be drag performers Vander Von Odd and Melissa Befierce.
Vander Von Odd was the winner and Melissa Befierce tied for runner-up on season 1 of “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula” reality show. The show originally aired on YouTube but later was shown on Netflix.
Melissa Befierce was profiled in a Los Angeles Times story on LA-area “drag mothers” earlier this year.
Saturday’s event, which is family-friendly, will have food vendors, a local fashion designer, and a runway show, according to the Facebook page.
Tickets, which are available through this link, are $375 for a VIP table seating 10 people and including memorabilia, a goodie bag, appetizer, and drink; $50 for VIP meet-and-greet, memorabilia, and goodie bag; $35 for general admission, including a poster; and $10 for children ages 10 and younger.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the announcement of the event has re-ignited the culture clashes between Fresno area conservatives and progressives over drag events.
I guess the you only like freedom and the 1st Amendment when it suits your needs but when someone voices an opinion different than yours, you use inflammatory words to incite violence. Either all us have freedom or none of us do.
— Lourin Hubbard (@LourinHubbard) December 9, 2022
Nancy Price is a multimedia journalist for GV Wire. A longtime reporter and editor who has worked for newspapers in California, Florida, Alaska, Illinois and Kansas, Nancy joined GV Wire in July 2019. She previously worked as an assistant metro editor for 13 years at The Fresno Bee. Nancy earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her hobbies include singing with the Fresno Master Chorale and volunteering with Fresno Filmworks. You can reach Nancy at 559-492-4087 or Send an Email