RuPaul's DragCon LA is an annual expo of drag culture held in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

billed as a "convention that celebrates 'the art of drag, queer culture and self-expression for all'", which debuted in 2015. Its sister event is RuPaul's DragCon NYC started in 2017, and is considered the "world's largest celebration of drag culture." The event is an outgrowth of the internationally successful ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'', which generated ''

Drag Race Thailand ''Drag Race Thailand'' is a Thai reality competition show based on the American version with RuPaul. The series was licensed by the Kantana Group and premiered on 15 February 2018. The show is hosted by fashion stylist Art Arya, while drag per ...

'', ''

RuPaul's Drag Race UK ''RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' is a British reality competition television series based on the American television series of the same name. The television series, a collaboration between the BBC and World of Wonder, premiered on 3 October 2019. ...

'', '' RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars,'' and

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's '' The Switch Drag Race''. ''RuPaul's Drag Race and'' the DragCons come from World of Wonder Entertainment (WOW), a

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, a ...

based in Los Angeles. At RuPaul's DragCon LA, past ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' contestants and other well-known drag artists meet with fans, take pictures, sign autographs, and sometimes perform or take part in a discussion panel, as well as sell merchandise. The discussion panels vary from more obvious topics like clothing, fashion, wigs, and makeup, to

history of drag A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

, drag activism, trans rights, queer

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, and political issues facing the LGBTQ community. WOW's co-director and producer of the convention, Randy Barbato shared that ironically the panels can be quite deep because although drag queens are known for being fun and about their looks, the queens are smart artists and activists, he also said, "For us, drag has always been political!" The main stage presents performances and runway events all day long. There is also hundreds of vendors offering drag supplies and accessories; in 2016, two hundred vendors sold $2.3 million of 'DragCon exclusive merchandise' by vendors and exhibitors on the expo floor. In 2018, the two U.S. DragCons, co-produced by RuPaul and World of Wonder brought in $8 million with a combined 100,000 visitors. According to ''Glossy'', "the event's core demographic are 18- to 34-year-olds, with 60% female attendees and 40% male. About 60% of DragCon's audience identify as

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

and 40% as heterosexual." ''

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'' notes that DragCon is similar to the annual Burning Man art festival in that attendees exhibit radical self-expression, the culture is participatory and inclusive, and what is presented is ephemeral. In 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the event went online as Digital DragCon.

History

In 2020, and due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and stay-at-home orders—starting in March throughout California—resulted in large events being cancelled, postponed, or like the "reborn" RuPaul's Digital DragCon 2020, going online. The two-day event will be hosted by RuPaul with guests including Jackie Cox, Love Connie, Karen from Finance, Varla Jean Merman, "

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth da ...

" singer Rebecca Black, and Tony Hale from '' Veep''. The convention will feature "performances, panels, merchandise" and be streamed for free on World of Wonder's YouTube channel.

Beauty influencers

According to World of Wonder (WOW) co-founder Fenton Bailey, "

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series '' RuPaul's Drag Race ...

was the first drag queen associated with beauty (products), with

MAC Cosmetics MAC Cosmetics, stylized as M·A·C, is a Canadian cosmetics manufacturer founded in Toronto, Canada in 1984 by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo. The company is headquartered in New York City after becoming a subsidiary of Estée Lauder Companies i ...

in the 1990s." ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' has highlighted how the drag queens embrace and use make-up as "drag stress-tests the best beauty products"; many are also beauty influencers for various brands including their own; some of whom have booths at the convention to sample and sell products. ''Glossy'' notes that of "beauty festivals" ''DragCon'' is one of few with "ultra-engaged audiences." In 2015, the first year of ''DragCon LA'', there were eight beauty companies presented. ''DragCon'' "has seen 615% year-over-year growth in beauty vendors and sponsors"; with "more than $8.2 million in on-site sales in 2018, and 93% of attendees purchased merchandise valued at $200 or more."

Interacting with drag queens

Ginger Minj, when asked the value in meeting fans personally, said it helps humanize the drag queen they've only seen on the screen, and "helps them realize that this is a serious job for us, not just fun and games on TV". She notes that the queens have a job because of the fans so she cultivates positive relationships with them.

References

{{Drag Race 2015 establishments in California Annual events in California Events in Los Angeles Recurring events established in 2015 Drag Race (franchise) LGBT events in California Drag events