Wigstock Drag Festival Comes To South Street Seport

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — An iconic New York drag festival that ran for 16 years is making a come back at the South Street Seaport.

Drag queens in six-inch pumps and glitzy garb will overrun Pier 17 for Wigstock, a night of extravagant entertainment on Sept. 1, returning thanks to a partnership between Neil Patrick Harris and the event's founder, Lady Bunny.

The audience for drag is booming with shows like VH1's Emmy-award winning "RuPaul's Drag Race" and its embrace by pop stars such as Lady Gaga and Kathy Perry, making now an ideal time to revive the festival.

“There couldn’t be a better time than now to honor the legends of Wigstock, who paved the way for drag culture’s current popularity, by bringing back an outrageous and unapologetically entertainment-rich show," said the show's founder Lady Bunny in a statement to Out Magazine.

Wigstock began in 1985 when a group of intoxicate drag queens left the Pyramid Club in the East Village and wound up spontaneously performing for a handful of homeless people in Tompkins Square Park. Over the years it gradually developed into a drag scene staple, attracting mainstream and counter culture performers alike.

Yet after it rained two years in a row, the show's dwindling coffers forced it to fizzle out and live on in other forms. A mini-Wigstock continued at Tompkins Square Park as part of another fest for a few years, and in 2015 and 2016 Lady Bunny brought Wigstock back as an evening cruise in New York Harbor.

Harris, who performed in drag for the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, became involved after his husband, David Burtka, suggested the revival.

"On Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I got to dip my toe in the delicious, Champagne-filled pool called drag, so I am now drunk with excitement to help bring back a show filled with over-the-top and sometimes out-of-control performances at a time when we all desperately need to come together, to laugh and to be entertained," Harrison told Out Magazine.

More than 30 performers have signed on to glam up the Seaport District with additional shows to be announced as the festival approaches.

Drag fans can purchase tickets to Wigstock here. The Sept. 1 show will run from 3-10 p.m. at Pier 17.

Drag queen Sweetie and the High Life and Low Life dancers perform a version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" during Wigstock in 2003. (Photo courtesy of Angela Jimenez/Getty Images)