About 160 people showed up last Thursday to the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) drag show, a significant jump from last year’s crowd. According to GSA Advisor Lee Mangler, last year’s drag show saw around 100 attendees.
The drag show, in the Volstorff Ballroom in the Student Union, is a major fundraiser for the GSA Club.
Mangler said that the goal of GSA’s drag show is to bring “visibility and education” about drag to the world of drag.
This year’s show sold 145 tickets. The event turnout comes after a major controversy in 2022, where the club had marked the event as “family friendly,” sparking outrage from some in the public and some South Dakota legislators. As a response to the outrage, South Dakota’s Students Association created Policy 1:35 that prevents the exposure of minors to campus events that the board deemed inappropriate.
According to Mangler, GSA took this controversy as a learning experience and implemented a lot of security measures to protect attendees and the drag queens.
These security measures include police officers being present during the show and restricting attendees to 18 and older only.
This year’s show had six local and regional performers in attendance, which was down from last year’s 10 performers. The performers were Brandi Sour, Persephone Shakers, Pollie Esther, Kassie Kain, Alessandra Jacobs and Martina Shakers.
Martina Shakers was the host of the show. While still recovering from cancer, she brought an energy and humor that kept the crowd engaged and motivated in between the drag queen performances.
Kassie Kain, from Brookings South Dakota, was a crowd favorite. She received the most praise from the crowd throughout the night.
Overall, there were 18 performances with each performer getting three turns. Their performances consisted of dancing, lip sync and crowd work. Attendees were encouraged to give tips during and after each performance.
The high-energy audience was filled with people cheering, shouting and signing along with the performers.
The event included an entrance fee of $10 for students and $14 for the public with a majority of the audience consisting of students at SDSU.
According to Mangler, students are already looking forward to next year’s drag show.
