Dragged into Spring
Last Saturday, residents of Fredericton were invited to Klub Khrome downtown to be “Dragged into Spring”. A night full of powerful renditions of classic Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, it truly was the best way to start spring off after a hard winter.
The drag show was made possible thanks to Fredericton native and St. Thomas alumni, Travis Barr or better known in the drag world as “Nova Gyna”. Along starring drag queens were Amour Love, Evelyn Nox, Porcelain Barbie, and also drag kings Justin Toodeep and Ménage À Troy.
From 8pm to 10:30pm for only $15 a ticket, the audience was able to experience drag while staying at their reserved tables with their steady fifteen due to COVID-19, but once seated audience members were welcome to take their masks off.
When speaking of how planning for the event took place, Nova Gyna said that the most challenging part was getting the performers lined up. They said how the drag queens of New Brunswick have a Facebook group to easily communicate and get the word out about upcoming events which don’t come along too often here in New Brunswick. Contrasting to Edmonton where Nova Gyna first got started. In New Brunswick, there are only thirty drag performers total whereas in Edmonton, they would circulate up to one hundred performers for a regular event at a gay bar. Nova Gyna expressed how much more difficult it is to be a drag queen on the east coast because of the smaller community. In New Brunswick with there only being thirty performers in the whole province it is more complicated organizing an event because so many of the drag queens and kings must travel for shows. The “Dragged into Spring” event had only six performers.
When asked about their craziest performance, Nova Gyna revealed it was a night in Edmonton and the performance song was “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. “There was a bachelorette party right in front of the stage and we gave them spray whip cream. The whole idea was for the them to spray it on me but they started spraying it on each other and it got all over the bar! But at least if they were having fun then we did our job”, said Nova Gyna.
Nova Gyna spoke more about becoming a drag queen, having first been inspired by watching Rupaul’s Drag Race. Then after moving to Edmonton after graduating from St. Thomas, Nova Gyna expressed how welcoming the drag community is out west. Within six months of moving there, they were well connected in the drag community and to prepare for their first performance was “painted” meaning having their makeup and hair done, by a drag legend who had been performing for over twenty-five years. The first performance was flawless said the drag queen. Gaining confidence, Nova Gyna painted themselves for the next week’s performance, now looking-back revealing that they looked “rough”. Only to be humbled by having their wig come off mid song.
Today, being an experienced drag queen, Nova Gyna can paint themselves to satisfyingly standards in three hours.