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Bristol's Drag Scene

With a strong LGBTQ+ scene and love of theatre/the arts, Bristol is a hotbed for drag events and all kinda of gender fluid action. Most nights of the week you can see someone lipsync til they drop at the Queenshilling, Old Market Assembly or Zed Alley's own Punka drag show.

Expect and inclusive environment at most drag events, Bristol tends to be a very LGBTQ+ friendly environment with due care built up around its drag nights. Some of our favourite drag queens and drag kinds include: Ursula Major, Brizzle Boiz's Isaac Dix - veritable Ru Paul's of the West.

Buy tickets for drag events in Bristol

Our recent drag recommendations

Another year, another audiovisual Halloween spectacular from Cellar Door, with twisted rockabilly punks Honk helming the hoedown – a prime slab of swampy, country-fried Mancunian garage FFO: The Gun Club, Country Teasers, early Jay Reatard etc. Loaded with support from new synth-addled psych oddities Ya Hablo, Brighton glam punks Austen Showers and moody indie folkers Dogsbody. HAUNTED HONKY TONK

Sell out warning! Hedonistically hardcore cyber-pop for the hot vamps and devilish divas! Plus Buffy burlesque, hard-as-nails femme freakery and slaytanic drag from a wicked gaggle of performers... the annual Punka Halloween Extravaganza is here to serve up your wildest, campest nightmares. A masqueerade ball of drag, burlesque, live music and DJs

'Folktronica’ is a dirty word, so Stick In the Wheel prefer ‘medieval Kraftwerk’ (and we couldn’t put it better). Auto-tuned Cockney poetry and glitched out field recordings via 17th century MIDI files. Ain't nothing else like it on these isles... Radical East London duo are known for their intense live shows exploring the raw holler of folk, synths, spoken word and rustic dobro guitar

High-camp antics await at Punka’s next event! Ever imagined punk versions of RuPaul bops? Well the Snatch Game - the world’s only Drag Race punk rock cover band - makes that a reality. And as if that wasn’t already enough, you’re gonna hear ‘Hot To Go’ and ‘Femininominon’ from Chappell Roan tribute band Pink Phony Club + the Punka house band serving iconic Riot Grrrl covers. With Pink Phony Club, The Punka House Band and hosted by After Shock

What our editors say

“Mercy is the first Armand Hammer album since 2023's We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, a project that The Observer (UK) described as "an exceptional record that deserves your time and headphones" and The Line Of Best Fit deemed "their headiest and most impressive work thus far." On 2021's Haram, their first with The Alchemist, the duo "drag postcolonial wounds onto the examination table" (Pitchfork). Beats Per Minute called it "a tremendous success."”
From: ARMAND HAMMER

“Radstock duo Throb (T.H.R.O.B) drag the crowd into a swamp of sludge-soaked hardcore. With only guitar and drums, they unleash filthy, down-tuned riffs and punishing rhythmic weight. It’s abrasive, heavy as hell, and impossible not to feel in your ribcage — a perfect evening escalation.”
From: COFFIN FODDER // THROB // BYFORD DOLPHIN INCIDENT

“A large community of fans has been built up, now even larger, thanks to the digital distribution of their catalog, on all platforms. The recent reissue of the first album in 2023 was the opportunity to release an unreleased single After Laughter Comes Tears in 2022 on their new label Wita Records, and a second You’ve Got To have Freedom on the 10-year anniversary compilation of the Cologne festival Freedom Sounds. The desire, passion and friendship that still bind them together, and the desire to reconnect with their fans, lead them to continue the story, with the new drag'n'fly album.”
From: The Dynamics

“There'll be foot-tapping tunes on Uilleann pipes from folk musicians par excellence PADDI BENSON and GRACE LEMON. You'll have to pipe down to appreciate SHOLTO DOBIE and ALANAS GURINAS's exquisitely delicate experimentation via self-built tubes, valves, and vibrating paper. Bristol's premier push-fit plumbing-themed drag king PIPE BENDER will be laying pipe (for real, features actual plumbing). And a one-night-only gathering of players form a drone orchestra of 28 recorders reclaimed from a local school. Plus BENNY DART piping out pipe records in the bar all night long.”
From: PIPE DREAM

“After Shock has been bouncing around the Bristol music scene for fifteen years. After taking a break from music they became Bristol's vocal drag powerhouse in 2021 and since then have become a staple in the scene as a host & producer. Colloquially known as 'The Body of Bristol', if their signature live vocals don't do it for you, their arse certainly will.”
From: TELGATE / THE FREAKSHOW / GHOLA