Dragging through winter with annual ball
Brent Hallenbeck Burlington Free Press
Some arts-and-entertainment events start small before building their audiences. Not the Winter Is a Drag Ball. That was a big hit from the start 19 years ago.
“At the time there was a resurgence of drag in Burlington,” said Bob Bolyard, who performed in the initial drag ball at Memorial Auditorium Annex in Burlington. The member of The House of LeMay drag troupe (he’s Amber LeMay) took over leadership of the ball 11 years ago and oversees the latest edition Saturday when it fills both rooms at Higher Ground.
More than 500 people took part in that first drag ball in 1996, with proceeds going to Vermont CARES (Committee for AIDS Resources, Education and Services). Though the ball was a success right away, it has grown in its nearly two decades. Bolyard said the event that fills the Ballroom and the Showcase Lounge at Higher Ground draws more than 1,000 attendees and regularly gives Higher Ground its largest one-night attendance and alcohol-sales figures for the year.
The Winter is a Drag Ball on Feb. 13, 2010 in the Higher Ground Ballroom & Showcase Lounge, South Burlington.
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