Not RuPaul, but the college’s Spectrum Club and Alpha Psi Omega (National Theatre Honor Society) brought the first Drag Race to the campus on April 12 in the Theater.

“We wanted to do the Drag Race just to bring a different kind of event to the college,” said Gage Shelton, sophomore and president of the Spectrum Club. “As the LGBTQ+ Club on campus, we felt that a Drag Race would be something new to the area (considering the closest Queer Bar is in Roanoke), and wanted to see what we could do!”

There were three performers. Each of them lip-synced a song to the audience and was up to compete to win three categories: Best Makeup, Best Dressed, and Best Lip-Sync.

The first performance was drag queen Bluejay, by T.J. Baker, junior. They lip-synched to the song “Rockin’ Robin” by Bobby Day and also won the category for “Best Makeup”.

“It was such a fulfilling experience, drag is such a cool art form, so getting to be a part of that was so great,” Baker said. “I had so much fun, and I think the crowd did, too.”

A second performance was done by Layla Freeman, sophomore, whose drag name was Jaques Sheet. She performed to the song “These Boots Were Made for Walking” by Nancy Sinatra and won the category for “Best Dressed”.

“The event went really well, and I wholeheartedly enjoyed it,” Freeman said. “I was extremely nervous, but once I got up there, it was so cool to do, and I hope to do it again next year.”

The last performance of the evening was a lip-synch to “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” by Big & Rich. This was done by Rachel Blankenship-Tucker, with the drag name Ray Tucker.

“I’ve always wanted to do drag and have dressed up at a few parties over the years, but I’ve never had the opportunity to participate in a public performance,” Blankenship-Tucker said. “The energy from the audience was great, and it was an honor to stand on stage with the amazingly talented students.”

The clubs hope to have more drag races in the future.

“We absolutely want to make this an annual event,” Shelton said. “Now that we have a base to build off of, we hope to have a bigger event next year, with more performers. So, if anyone is interested, they can start prepping a routine at any time!”