 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wigstock" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Wigstock | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Inaugurated | 1984 (1984) |
| Founder | Lady Bunny |
Wigstock was an annual outdoordrag festival that began in 1984 in Manhattan'sEast Village that took place on Labor Day. Continuing, with a few gaps, until 2005, the festival would traditionally act as the unofficial end to the summer for the gay community of New York City. After a 12-year gap, the festival was revived byLady Bunny andNeil Patrick Harris on September 1, 2018 at Pier 17 of the South Street Seaport in New York City.[1][2][3] The name refers to the 1969Woodstock Festival.
Hosted by co-creatorLady Bunny, the festival was held in its first years inTompkins Square Park. According to Lady Bunny, the event began spontaneously in 1984 after a group of drag queens (along withWendy Wild, NYC artist Scott Lifshutz and a couple ofFleshtones) became inebriated at the nearbyPyramid Club and decided to put on a show in the park.
In the mid-1990s, the Giuliani administration prohibited the festival being held in Tompkins Square and Union Square, and moved it to the Hudson River, effectively ensuring it would lose its grassroots activist appeal. Lady Bunny said that 2001's Wigstock would be the last, but in 2003, 2004, and 2005, Wigstock and Bunny returned to Tompkins Square, this time under the auspices of theHowl Festival.
In 1987, video artistTom Rubnitz filmed a 20-minutedocumentary titledWigstock: The Movie. Rubnitz's film captures the event's early improvised atmosphere; early years of Wigstock often made direct reference to Woodstock (including performance artist John Kelly's send-up ofJoni Mitchell and her song "Woodstock"), and Rubnitz's film mimics aspects of the1970 Woodstock concert film.
A second documentary titledWigstock: The Movie was released in 1995;[4] the festivals captured are larger and more polished, with rock music largely supplanted byhouse music, and the influence of the original Woodstock festival less evident. The 1995 film gained a wider audience and was distributed across the country, then released on video and DVD.
The 2019 filmWig byChris Moukarbel explores the festival's origins, evolution, and 2018 incarnation.
