Drag Ball Rides the Lightning into Oberlin

Cyberdrag Too Grand includes a live webcast

It will be hard to top the monstrosity that was last year's Drag Ball: an enormous staircase that swooped to the main floor of Wilder as it showcased fabulous boys with feather boas, vinyl skirts and 5" high heels that would send even RuPaul running.

This year's Cyberdrag Too Grand just might have it beat, though, with its live webcast that allows even the novice hacker unlimited virtual access to the debauchery that has made Drag Ball infamous.

I AM Simply Too Grand: The Lady Chablis is one of many features of this year's Drag Ball. (photo courtesy of the Lady Chablis)

In addition to this technical mastery, there also will be a live video installation, coordinated by senior Dan Romano. He said, "It's sweet butter eye-candy. It's being done by a team of art and TIMARA students, including a video presentation of the runway competition."

Event coordinator Chris Baymiller said, "We're trying not to replicate ourselves and we want to do something different this year." In addition to the enveloping sound of four dance floors, Cyberdrag Too Grand boasts a lineup that features Lady Chablis, the drag queen prominently mentioned in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, as emcee; eighth blackbird, an all-Oberlin contemporary music ensemble, and Queer Acts, a dance troupe led by Associate Professor of Dance Ann Cooper Albright.

Saturday night's festivities will begin at 9:30, when the doors of Wilder open to the 1,700 expected drag kings and queens. Four DJs will vie for the attention of the crowd, starting at 9:30 with Dan spinning techno in the Main Lounge, Sarah and Molly playing 80s favorites in the lobby, Brian jumpstarting the crowd with hip-hop in the 'Sco and Robert bringing funky soul to the DeCafe.

At 10:30 Oberlin's own contemporary music ensemble, eighth blackbird, will perform in the 'Sco. After forming in 1998, the group won First Prize at the Concert Artists' Guild International Competition the same year. Following eighth blackbird will be Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., a group who organized the first fundraiser for people with AIDS and published the first safer-sex pamphlet.

Hot off the presses: This year's Drag Ball ticket, a grand experience in and of itself. (ticket design by Daniel Romano)

At 11:30 will be the highlight of every Drag Ball, the famed runway competition. Baymiller said, "The runway has always been the high mark of the evening," for obvious reasons.

The winners of the runway competition will be escorted by stretch limousine to the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland for a night of expense-paid partying.

Baymiller said, "We had to give something really fabulous, more along the lines of the outrageousness of the event. We figured gift certificates to the Feve weren't going to cut it." If all goes according to plan, the runway competition will be the magnet for the undulating throngs of sleek, shaven men and the body-painted and sequined women.

At Cyberdrag Too Grand, as at all former Drag Balls, the prevalent atmosphere will be one of passionate unleashing, with everyone checking their inhibitions at the door in order to squeeze into their girlfriend's size 4 pleather mini with matching fluorescent halter top.

But even more important than fitting into a slinky synthetic fabric is the liberated feeling of sexual experimentation. For all those guys too bashful to shed their favorite ratty sweatshirt for flashier goods, Drag Ball presents the option to look good and feel good for one night.

Cyberdrag Too Grand boasts more exciting music than ever before. One half of the pop DJ team of Paul and James, senior Paul Pitcher, said, "Pop music is making an incredible dent in the music industry.

"I feel like a musical slut for selling out to the industry, but hey, people love to dance."

But Drag Ball is not just about dancing in thigh-highs to the musical wizardry of Britney Spears and 'N Sync; it is about education as well. In addition to Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the ensemble Queer Acts will provide an innovative presentation at 1 a.m. in the Main Lounge.

Tickets for Cyberdrag Too Grand are $7 for students, $10 for non-students. It will begin at 9:30 p.m. and continue until 2:30 a.m.