Colourfully dressed drag kings and queens played an unusual game of softball on Monday, surrounded by about 2,500 people who had come out to Vic West Park to cheer on this year’s Memorial Drag Ball Game.
Organizers celebrated 30 years of softball spectacle, staged annually since 1994, that has grown in size and ambition since its early days at the Heywood ball field in Beacon Hill Park.
“This is practically a Heritage Canada moment,” drag ball MC Shelita Cox told attendees.
Victoria Pride Society festival director Gala Vega said that not much has changed from previous years, apart from slight upgrades such as a nice sound system and a stage.
There are always two teams — the Kings and the Queens. Players go to bat in full costume and the game is a three-hour display of camp and theatre.
Per tradition, the game always ends in a tie. “We like to make things even,” Vega said.
The ball game kicks off a week of events put on by the Victoria Pride Society in celebration of the capital region’s queer community.
There are no corporate sponsors for the event. Many attendees bring their own lawn chairs, picnic snacks and blankets for the day.
The game’s only concession stand is run by roller derby group Eves of Destruction, which acts as a major fundraising event for Victoria’s full-contact speed skating league.
The Memorial Drag Ball Game was founded by drag performer Kevin Harney as a way to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS and has been played out of Vic West Park since the 2000s.
