As anti-queer hostility again takes center stage on the political agenda worldwide, go drag! munich sends a clear signal: for five days the festival will transform Munich into a hub for queer performing arts, performance, humor, resistance, and community.
From June 10 to 14, 2026, the international festival brings female, trans* and non-binary drag artists to the city. The program runs from cabaret and theater to workshops and parties, and includes discussions about societal developments, right-wing mobilization, and queer self-assertion.
go drag! was founded in 2002 by New York drag-king pioneer Diane Torr and Berlin-based performance artist Bridge Markland. Today the festival is artistically led by Markland together with Munich drag artist Ruby Tuesday. In Munich, local scenes meet international artists and diverse forms of queer performance.
Between pop culture, activism, and nightlife
The program moves between theatre experimentation, club culture, pop references, and political practice. Drag-wrestling from Vienna sits next to boyband choreography from Helsinki, Heinrich von Kleist becomes the playback-court-show, drag artists play “Dungeons & Dragons,” museum tours open queer perspectives on collections, and workshops invite participants to develop their own drag personas.
At the same time, go drag! munich is not just an entertainment festival. Drag appears here as an artistic practice that makes gender images visible, shifts them, and dismantles them — sometimes glamorous, sometimes absurd, sometimes openly political. Formats like the BIPOC cabaret show “On Our Wavelength” or discussions about queer hostility and right-wing extremism demonstrate how closely stage and social reality are intertwined.
Gleichzeitig bleibt das Festival in Community-Strukturen verankert. Viele Veranstaltungen entstehen aus queeren Netzwerken, Clubs, Bühnen und selbstorganisierten Projekten heraus. Gerade diese Mischung aus Experiment, Unterhaltung und solidarischer Praxis macht “go drag! munich” zu einem der markanten queerfeministischen Performanceformate der Stadt.
Zu den Spielorten gehören unter anderem das PATHOS theater, schwere reiter, der Gasteig HP8, das NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, die Pinakothek der Moderne und das Museum Fünf Kontinente. (dd/pm)
