Funny Girls
Blackpool's best-known drag cabaret, staging big themed revues in a restored 1939 art deco cinema two minutes from Blackpool North.
Drag performers in Blackpool: every kind of drag
Queens, kings, dames, trans showgirls, faux queens and alternative drag, and where to see them.
Blackpool is one of Britain's drag capitals, and drag here is far more than one thing. Drag is a performance, not an identity. As the UCSF LGBT Resource Center's glossary puts it, the terms drag queen and drag king describe an act and say nothing about the performer's gender identity. Performers of any gender or sexuality do drag, and what they do on stage tells you nothing about who they are off it.
Drag queens
Performers playing an exaggerated, glamorous female character. In Blackpool most have historically been gay men, from the resident queens at Garlands to the company at Funny Girls, and the town has drag on every day of the week.
Garlands
A camp, free-entry drag pub near Blackpool North where resident queens are on from mid-afternoon every single day.
The Flying Handbag
A big, purpose-built LGBTQ+ bar and club on Queen Street, open from noon every day with drag hosts, karaoke, food and a sun terrace.
Peek-a-Booze
A friendly Dickson Road cabaret bar with budget adults-only rooms upstairs, cheap drinks and something on most nights.
Read more: drag queens in Blackpool, and the A to Z of queens.
Panto dames and straight drag
The British pantomime dame, a man, often straight, playing a comic female role, is the oldest kind of drag on Blackpool's stages. The Grand Theatre has a dame in its panto almost every Christmas. In 2026 Ben Harlow plays Dame Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk, from 4 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. See panto dames in Blackpool.
Trans showgirls and performers
Trans women have long been part of cabaret and showgirl traditions, and many perform in drag and cabaret in the UK today, as solo acts or in companies. A trans woman performing in drag is a performer like any other; she isn't "pretending" to be a woman. Read more: trans drag queens and showgirls.
Drag kings
Performers, usually women, trans men or non-binary people, playing an exaggerated masculine character. Blackpool's claim here goes back to Vesta Tilley around 1900, and in 2015 the town had Kings, a High Street bar billed as the UK's first venue for drag kings. Read more: drag kings in Blackpool.
Bio queens and faux queens
Women who perform as high-camp drag queens, with all the lashes and padding. The names "bio queen" and "faux queen" are falling out of use, and many simply call themselves drag queens. Look out for them in visiting line-ups and at Pride. Read more: bio queens and faux queens.
Alternative drag and drag monsters
Performers of any gender who use drag for horror, art, comedy, politics or something that isn't male or female at all. Blackpool's best-known example is Mr Blackpool by Harry Clayton-Wright, an end-of-the-pier show "at the end of the world", which came home to the Grand Theatre in 2026. Read more: alternative drag and drag monsters.
Watching drag well
Tip the performers, keep your phone down during numbers, and don't heckle unless invited. See drag night etiquette.
More
- The Blackpool drag tradition
- Funny Girls' showgirls
- Cross-dressers (not a performance)
Sources
Drag and performance: more pages
Drag queensThe Funny Girls company, Garlands residents, Drag Race stars, the legends and where to see them.Panto damesThe 2026 Grand Theatre panto, forty years of Grand dames, Danny La Rue and how dames relate to drag.Trans drag queens and showgirlsTrans women in drag and cabaret: the showgirl tradition, what it means and Blackpool's welcoming stages.Drag kingsFrom Vesta Tilley to the UK's first drag king bar in 2015, and where to watch for kings now.Bio queens and faux queensWomen who perform as drag queens: the names, why many dislike "faux", Drag Race UK's first and more.Alternative drag and drag monstersHorror, art and gender-defying drag: what it is, Mr Blackpool, Halloween shows and where to look.Every identityThe full list, the long acronyms and UK law.