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RuPaul's DragCon NYC

RuPaul's DragCon NYC is an annual fan convention and expo of drag culture held in New York City, which debuted in September 2017. It is based on the successful RuPaul's DragCon LA which was launched in Los Angeles in 2015 billed as a “convention that celebrates ‘the art of drag, queer culture and self-expression for all’”. The NYC event is considered the "world's largest celebration of drag culture" with 100,000 attendees. The event is an outgrowth of the internationally successful RuPaul's Drag Race, which generated Drag Race Thailand, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and Chile's The Switch Drag Race. RuPaul's Drag Race and the two DragCons come from World of Wonder Entertainment (WOW), a production company based in Los Angeles. The first RuPaul's DragCon NYC was held in 2017 at the Javits Center, with over 40,000 attendees at the two-day all-ages event; it “garnered 687 million (online) impressions in 2018.” Based on the success of the original LA event, the NYC event expanded to three days in 2019: both had over 100,000 attendees in 2019.

History
Background at RuPaul's DragCon in NYC in 2017 It is based on the successful RuPaul's DragCon LA which was launched in Los Angeles in 2015, and considered the "world's largest celebration of drag culture" with 50,000 attendees. with 50,000 attendees. One of the notable panels was "Beyond the Binary", with Aja, performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, and actor Nico Tortorella discussing "how can we make the world more inclusive of non-binary and gender non-conforming people?" As a first, RuPaul met with fans face-to-face taking part in panels and runway events. RuPaul hosted RuTalks, one discussing the political climate with a Trump administration with New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. Another highlight was the staging of an all-ages version of Sasha Velour's popular monthly drag show Nightgowns. A surprising non-drag vendor booth was The Warwick Rowers project, a gay/straight alliance of the men rowers of the University of Warwick Boat Club. Since 2009, the athletic men have posed nude for calendars and other products, shipped to eighty countries, raising over $1 million, with their campaign to fight homophobia in sports reaching 140 countries. Drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys said about the trend, “the rise of drag children is predictable”. Included in the interview will be Fürstenberg's efforts to raise funds for a museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty, and her role in the HBO documentary Liberty: Mother of Exiles. In July 2019, it was announced that the inaugural drag queens for ''RuPaul's Drag Race UK'', which airs in September, will be introduced at DragCon NYC. On the Saturday of the expo, Yvie Oddly, winner of season eleven of Drag Race, was named as one of a rotating cast of a dozen Drag Race queens in ''RuPaul's Drag Race Live!'', a Las Vegas show residency from January to August 2020 at the Flamingo Las Vegas. The show will feature RuPaul’s music and seven of the twelve queens: Oddly, Aquaria (winner of season ten), Asia O'Hara (season ten), Coco Montrese (season five, All Stars season two), Derrick Barry (season eight), Eureka O'Hara (season nine and ten), India Ferrah (season three), Kahanna Montrese (season eleven), Kameron Michaels (season ten), Kim Chi (season eight), Naomi Smalls (season eight), and Shannel (season one, All Stars one). This year’s event included efforts to politically activate attendees by registering people to vote, and through seminars on organizing for equal LGBTQ rights. A first for DragCon was a booth and representation of a U.S. Presidential candidate; organizers reached out to all the 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, but only Senator Elizabeth Warren, from Massachusetts, had her campaign represented. LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly skew to the Democratic Party. ==Community safe space==
Community safe space
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' co-judge and one of RuPaul’s best friends, Michelle Visage, who has a child in the cosplay community, shared that DragCons are a safe space for the all-ages and LGBTQ communities. ==Booths==
Booths
At RuPaul's DragCon NYC, 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. Glossy notes that of “beauty festivals” DragCon NYC is one of few with “ultra-engaged audiences.” WOW’s “first partnership combining both of its hero properties, DragCon and WOW Presents.” WOW’s YouTube channel will run an eight-part unscripted series featuring a DragCon attendee being given make-up and beauty advice by Raven—who placed as runner up on both the second season of the show, and the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars''—and is RuPaul’s personal make-up artist. 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 ==
Interacting with drag queens
, 2017 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". == See also ==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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