RuPaul’s DragCon

We headed to London’s Excel this January for RuPaul’s DragCon event. Now in its third year the annual convention for Drag Race fans welcomes queens from across the globe, features a ribbon cutting ceremony with Michelle Visage and sees more than 100 acts perform on the main stage.

During the event build our crew were tasked with outlining the floor area for the 180 stands that the Drag Queens take. Such is their popularity; large queues form with excited eventgoers looking to have their photo taken with their favourites. A two-tier queuing system for VIP and ordinary attendees is created using a combination of tensile barriers and white tape on the floor. Whilst the initial install was carried out prior to the show opening, the crew had their work cut out during the show ensuring that both the barrier and tape stayed in place.

Additional tasks included positioning tensile barriers on the runway once the carpet was laid to ensure no pedestrian traffic walked on it. We also installed crowd barriers in the entrance area to assist with crowd management, creating a holding pen for attendees ahead of the event’s opening.

For the derig the crew removed all the white tape, collected and removed the tensile barriers and dismantled the crowd control barriers.

The client was very happy with the work carried out, with Rachel Hall who managed the event’s operations on behalf of World of Wonder Productions saying: “All the Showforce crew were great. It was a challenging job to keep on top of and all the crew had their work cut out. They did a fantastic job and it was encouraging to see some females amongst the crew who more than pulled their weight! I look forward to seeing you again soon.”