This year, Bushwig returns renewed. In addition to the expected deluge of drag performances, Horrorchata and the crew have invited longtime hero Peaches to headline. We spoke with Horrorchata about Bushwig’s genesis and evolution, the curatorial inspirations and visions, and saying goodbye.
“I’m one of the founding members. It was curated by me and Babes, Trust. She passed away last year. It was me and her. With Peaches, we’ve been trying to get her for, oh my god, so many years. I’m so happy we got her this year. I’m sure Babes, would be excited, because that was one of our dreams.”
“Me and Babes come from that era when Le Tigre, Riot Grrrl, all that music came out. And Peaches was relatable - punk, rock & roll, I don’t know… alternative. And this is our 13th year of doing Bushwig. We’re teenagers now - we’re going to high school [laughs].”
“I come from Texas, so I grew up with SXSW and this festival Gay by Gay Gay. Those are my influences. The first or second bands we had at Bushwig were Tami Tamaki, Scream Club… We try to get not just drag, but other musicians where it goes together - queer, artsy, punk. Not only in the drag community but even in the trans community. It blends with nightlife and everyone that’s making music, making art, if you’re a DJ, a live singer, a drag performer… It all goes together well.”
“The first one? Oh my god. It was at this art space called Secret Project Robot. It was on Melrose, in Bushwick. Me and Babes wanted to do a drag festival, this was 2013. We were nervous and scared and didn’t think people would show up. But it was a big hit. Back then, it was just a one day festival. The stage was about to fall apart because it was DIY, made out of wood. I definitely got some splinters that year. It was basically throwing a drag festival in someone’s backyard. That’s where we started.”
“Even though we were at Secret Project for the second year, Lady Bunny came, John Cameron Mitchell came. Two iconic people. So that’s like, people are noticing Bushwig. The fourth year, Lady Bunny brought me on stage and handed me the torch. That was a moment for me too, like oh wow I’m doing something amazing for the community. Because she had her successful drag festival Wigstock, so it was really cool for her to pass me down the torch, on stage.”
“We did Secret Project Robot three times, we did Onderdonk House once, and then that’s when we went to Knockdown Center for our fifth one. And we’ve been there ever since.” “We’ve inspired cities like Miami, they do a thing called Wynwood, and in Oakland, they call it Oaklash. They’ve all written to us, back in the day, ‘We’re going to do this thing, we’re inspired by you guys, is that cool?’ We’re like ‘oh my god, totally.’ We’re super supportive, and that’s really cool to see other cities doing their own Bushwig take.”
“We get about 600 applicants a year, only 150 or 130 will go through. Honestly, that’s the hard part - picking everyone. We try not to have someone perform every time. That’s been our rule lately. If you’ve done two or three in a row, we give room for new talent. There’s so much drag in NY. Sometimes I think we should do two weekends in a row, but that would be too much for me.”
“Me and Simone are really good friends, and we always talked about keeping Bushwig alive even when we both are dead [laughs]. We just want to pass it onto someone. It was hard - [she died] about three weeks or maybe a month before the festival. We had a pause and were not sure if we were going to do it… Overall, the team spoke and we were like let’s continue. We gave her her flowers last year. And there were a lot of friends from Europe who came. We had the memorial so people could attend the festival and the memorial, and people could celebrate her all week. It was really special.”