Bristol Pride will be welcoming a huge star of RuPaul’s Drag Race to headline its Cabaret Stage this year. Announcing its highly anticipated line-up for the event, which takes place on Saturday, July 12, Brooke Lynn Hytes has been unveiled as the main act.
The star of RuPaul’s Drag Race USA and the judge of Canada’s Drag Race, Brooke Lynn Hytes is known for her ballet moves, show-stopping looks, and flawless lip syncing. Alongside the drag star, some 30 other acts will also take to the Cabaret Stage to entertain what is expected to be 40,000 people in the crowd.
The Cabaret Stage is just one of five stages that will make up this year’s Pride Day festival, and the main stage line-up already consists of the likes of Cascada, Ultra Naté, and Sex Education’s Anthony Lexa. You can buy your tickets and wristbands, which start at just £9 and offer quick access, money off at the bar and free bus travel, from the official Bristol Pride website here.
Daryn Carter MBE, Pride director, said: “Our Cabaret Stage is a fantastic way to showcase the incredible drag acts we have from Bristol, the wider UK and even internationally. This year’s line up is a diverse array of Drag Kings and Queens, with entertainment ranging from musicians and dancers to comedy and even opera!”
Hailed as ‘one of the best Cabaret Stages in the UK’, this year’s line-up consists of representatives from Drag houses Slaughterhaus and House of Fleek, panto Dame and Britain’s Got Talent contestant Miss Courtney; Pride-goers will be treated to a huge variety of unique local performers including Asian Ballroom sensation, Miss Dynasty, and Bristol Drag Theatre Company founding members, Cynthia Road, Spank, Quiches Lorraine, and Tess Drive.
They’ll be joined by Drag Dungeoneer members, Pom Pom, YuGiHoe, Jersey the Devil, and BooHoo Mann , cabaret icon, Miss Jam Tart and drag power couple, Michael Romance and Killya Darling. Menawhile, fans of vocal powerhouses can revel in the musical delights of Alex Fincher and Amaya Napa, new vocalists to the Bristol Pride stage.
Singer-songwriter Alex blends rap, metal, dance, pop and R’n’B and promises a theatrical experience while Amaya comes from the world of opera, having performed in the English National Opera and Royal Festival Hall. Icon of queer cinema, Val the Brown Queen, who starred in critically acclaimed film Unicorns, is one of the most prolific south Asian drag artists in the country, and will be bringing her culture, trans identity and political commentary alongside comic lipsyncing, to the Cabaret Stage this summer.
Also performing is Mr Wesley Dykes, a proud member of the Cocoa Butter Club, which showcases and celebrates performers of colour. Blending storytelling with rap music, Mr Wesley Dykes is described as ‘one of the most exciting Kings on the UK scene’.
Recognisable acts from across the UK circuit also performing include Alfie Ordinary, Donna Trump, Jolene Dover, Son of a Tutu and Baroness Mary Golds. While rounding off the line up is Snow White Trash.
Known as the UK’s “Saxy Drag Queen,” she is known not only for her instrument, but her impressive live vocals. Previously performing on the Bristol Pride Main Stage with Scissor Sisters’ frontman Jake Shears, she’ll be making a welcome return to Bristol Pride as this year’s Cabaret Stage closing act.