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Events Nightlife Timeline

Horrochata’s “Be Cute” Halloween Bash

HORROCHATA’S “BE CUTE”

HALLOWEEN

LITTLEFIELD, GOWANUS

NIGHTLIFE

10-30-21

8th Annual Halloween bash was held at Littlefield in Gowanus, with performances by Charlene Incarnate, Lucy Balls, C’etait BonTemps, Dèvo Monique, Tina Twirler, Angelica Sundae, Ginger Von Snap, Neon Calypso, and Horrorchata herslef. DJ sets by Tikka Masala and Hannah Lou.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Events Festivals Timeline

Bushwig 2021 – Day 2 (NSFW)

BUSHWIG DAY 2

(NSFW)

09-12-21

KNOCKDOWN CENTER, QUEENS

Looks and performances from the first day of Bushwig featuring Casey Spooner, Dahlia Sin, Evah Destruction, Jasmine Kennedie, Kevin Aviance, La Zavaleta, Maddelynn Hatter, Miss Malice, Neon Calypso, Rify Royalty, The Dragon Sisters, and much more.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Events Festivals Timeline

Bushwig 2019 – Day 1 (NSFW)

BUSHWIG DAY 1

(NSFW)

09-11-21

KNOCKDOWN CENTER, QUEENS

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Events Timeline

NYC’s Biggest Drag Festival Sort of Just Happened in Spite of Corona

EVENTS | FESTIVALS

Bushwig 2020:

Corona Edition

One of the world’s biggest drag performance festivals, just kind of happened on Saturday, October 3, in spite of coronavirus.

10-03-20

Bushwig, one of the world’s biggest drag performance festivals, originating in Brooklyn in 2011, just kind of happened on Saturday, October 3, in spite of coronavirus. The official three days of the festival that usually happen at Brooklyn’s Knockdown Center around this time of the year, were scrapped just a couple of months ago, when the prospects of opening up New York spaces that could accommodate large crowds were slim to none.

Horrorchata

The social-distancing event happened over the course of a Saturday evening in Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn. The official Bushwig IG page posted a flyer about the event just a few days before it happened, giving unusually short notice to the festival’s fans. The post advised everyone to wear a mask and a wig, and to keep 6 feet apart. Instead of the usual 300+ performers that would have been scheduled over the course of the three days at the Knockdown Center, only 12 performer names were featured on the flyer. Amongst the night’s slated performers were Bushwig’s old-timer Charlene, Ms. Bushwig 2018 Chiquitita (née Harajuku and then Juku), Sasha Velour’s NightGowns show’s regular Neon Calypso, the self-proclaimed mother of Brooklyn drag, Merrie Cherry, and Bushwig’s co-founder Horrorchata herself.

The crowd warmed up with the DJ set from Babes Trust, the second co-founder of the festival, who eventually came out onstage to start off the shows and tell everyone that the idea to throw the event was very last minute, and that all of the proceeds would go to the performers and the Bushwig organization team “to survive and strive.” The evening’s shows were split in two parts with a 10-minute intermission. Lady Quesa’Dilla opened and MC’d the first part of the evening, with Rify Royalty and drag king Myster E Mel Kiki following right after. Chiquitita, formerly Juku, debuted her new stage name to Sade’s “Is It A Crime,” sensuously embodying her womanhood in front of the large crowd; Neon Calypso followed up with poem “Capitalism” by Porsha Olayiwola, a 2014 Individual World Poetry Champion, breaking into “Bitch Better Have My Money” with her signature flips and splits; Merrie Cherry and Horrorchata closed out the first half of the performances with a joyous duet.

Charlene

Chiquitita

La Zavaleta

Merrie Cherry took over the MC duties for the second half of the evening and attempted to thank the NYPD for not kicking everyone out of the park. Most of the crowd booed and several people screamed out, “Fuck NYPD!” To which Merrie Cherry conceded and said that she was just grateful that everyone could come together and celebrate Bushwig.

The larger-than-life Dragon Sisters opened up the second act with a bang, while the multi-talented opera singing aerialist Marcy Richardson showered them with a thick stash of dollar bills; Charlene followed up with a fierce hairography thanks to her signature portable fan, her unruly bosom continually popping out of her deeply V-necked ensemble; Zavaleta kicked off her heels, one of which managed to hit someone in the crowd in the head, at the start of her performance and then cried bloody tears through plastic tubes attached to a pump; Miz Jade introduced everyone to a “Toxic” X “WAP” mashup; the last two performances belonged to Magenta and then Horrorchata’s duet with Charlene.

Performers of Brooklyn

The night wrapped up with an iconic photo op of all the Brooklyn-based performers in attendance and a DJ set by mrjpatt. The organizers of the event are already setting their eyes on next year. In Bushwig’s most recent IG post, part of the comment reads, “See you September 11th & 12th 2021 at @knockdowncenter ~ Tickets on sale soon“. Here’s to hoping that things will go back to somewhat normal in the upcoming year and the Brooklyn LGBTQIA+ community will be able to celebrate with each other once again under the roof of the Knockdown Center.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Nightlife Timeline

Strut NYC: Bringing Upbeat Music To Downtown Kids Since 2014

NIGHTLIFE

Strut: Upbeat Music For Downtown Kids

sidewalkkilla

Strut was started to encourage people to be themselves, celebrate life, and dance until their feet ache. Now the party has switched to a monthly format.

Strut is a (now) monthly Tuesday night party that was created by Deryck Todd in 2014, hosted at ACME restaurant’s basement bar. The party has always felt like an intimate soirée of fashionable misfits who don’t have much to do on an off-night of the week, except to get fabulous and go out. “The reason I started Strut, was because I wanted to encourage people to be themselves, celebrate life, dance until their feet ache and never worry about coming alone because you can always make a new friend there,” Deryck says on the motivation behind starting the party.

He says that he wanted to create space where bottle sales don’t take control, where the queer community is celebrated, and where you can hobnob with celebrities, yet always feel like you belong.

At first, the venue’s door might seem intimidating, but there is actually no testy face-control that so many New York “hot” venues try to implement to gain the coveted, but dubious title of “the hardest door in New York.” Once you are inside it feels like you are transported into someone’s important private party.

Even though the party’s slogan is “Upbeat music for downtown kids,” it still has a very laid-back vibe, where you don’t actually feel the pressure of presenting “cool,” but can quickly assimilate into the crowd even if you came by without a look. One of the long-running hosts of the party, Kiss, a silicon drip art fashion designer famous for creating one of Aquaria’s legendary DragRace looks “Oil-spill Mermaid,” says, “The party has an easy vibe, it almost feels like you are hanging out with a bunch of friends you haven’t seen in a while.”

Maybe this chill and easy vibe is what has attracted a slew of recognizable names over the years to stop by and lurk within the shadowy interior of ACME’s Downstairs: Malia Obama, Zachary Quinto, Miley Cyrus, Janelle Monáe, Kim Petras, Amanda Lepore, Hamish Bowles, Mary-Kate Olsen, Violet Chachki, Brian Atwood, and more.

FULL COVERAGE

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Unsorted

Strut: Sylvester Edition

Strut

NIGHTLIFE

Sylvester Edition

Strut’s January edition dedicated to a disco divo Sylvester. With a performance by Neon Calypso.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

Categories
Nightlife The Mixer

Be Cute, Poppers

THE MIXER | NIGHTLIFE


“Be Cute, Bushwig Hangover” Party At Littlefield, Gowanus

Horrorchata’s Bushwig after-party edition of Be Cute officially put a cap on the annual drag festival’s fanfare last Saturday (9/21/19). Performances by Crystal Mesh, Panthera Lush, Baby Love, Neon Calypso, and 2019 Miss Bushwig winner Serena Tea gave attendees at the Littlefield venue in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood a taste of some of Bushwig’s biggest highlights with a few new twists.

Serena Tea performed an encore installment of her gag-worthy “Serenatron” number that she debuted on the second day of Bushwig. Once again, the Brooklyn starlet took to the stage folded into the image of a yellow car à la Bumblebee of the Transformers movie franchise, and she shape-shifted from yellow sports car realness to yellow sports fish realness in a matter of seconds, leading the number with a syncopated reveal shocking enough to keep the crowd electrified until the end.

Serena Tea’s wig reveal this time, however, added an unexpected twist when, as she took off the first wig, she took off the wig hidden underneath as well, either on purpose or accident. Ms. Tea stared at the crowd, mouth agape, in theatrical astonishment for a few moments before strutting backstage and confidently reemerging with the hidden wig properly placed upon her head. Inadvertent or not, the improvisation of the crowd-winning number and her seamless adaptation of what could easily have been a blooper made it unique to the original.

Crystal Mesh performed two of her new singles, “Poppers (On The Dance Floor)” and “My Cabana” with the assistance of photographer and sex pig Jordan Bowens, who wore black thigh-high stilettos, a leather harness, and a cowboy hat as Ms. Mesh mimed riding him with a bottle of Jungle Juice Platinum hovering delicately beneath her nose while kicking giant beach balls at every photographer in the front row.

“I don’t know anybody here but these people all just came to dance and I love that,” Crystal Mesh said between performances and countless hits from the poppers bottle.

DJs Horrorchata and Hannah Lou kept the party cute late into the night with an eclectic mix of pop favorites and Latinx rhythm. Panthera Lush recreated her Bushwig number in which she assembled her look while a giant theater curtain suspended by a rack hitched to her back billowed behind her to Lady Gaga’s “Applause.”

Baby Love transformed from beauty queen to clown to beauty clown before giving a rendition of her Bushwig duet performance with Crystal Mesh.

Neon Calypso did so many death drops it would make Alyssa Edwards blush.

On a personal note, I don’t remember too much from Be Cute, and everything written here should be considered alleged and not taken as fact. Crystal Mesh shared her poppers with me more times than I can count, and they were very strong. The poppers truly were on the dance floor.

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Mark Minton
Mark Minton

Journalist

THE MIXER

Categories
Events Festivals The Mixer Timeline

Bushwig 2019: Portraits And Performances With Slayyyter, Aja, Florida Maniac And More

THE MIXER | EVENTS


Bushwig 2019: Portraits And Performances

Bushwig festival has celebrated eight years! This was only our second year even knowing about it. Kind of sucks, because we’ve missed so many years of awesomeness. 

It was first started in 2012 by two local drag queens- Horrorchata and Babe Trust. Now, it has gone international. Berlin is the other hosting city at the moment. We are sure it will only keep growing.

There were many incredible performers this year. Lady BunnySlayyyter, Nina West, Scarlet Envy and Tammie Brown– just to name a few. One of the best things that happened this year was Serena Tea’s performance. She transformed into a human from a car on stage. An amazing homage to Bumblebee from the “Transformers” movie franchise.

Another notable moment of the night was Serena Tea’s crowning as the new Mx. Bushwig. Two previously reigning queens Charlene and Juku oversaw the ceremony. To sum it up, we can’t wait for the next year’s Bushwig festival already. Furthermore, we can’t wait to attend it in Berlin.

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