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 queens in Blackpool
The Funny Girls company, Garlands residents, Drag Race stars, the legends and where to see them.
A drag queen performs an exaggerated, glamorous or comic female character. Traditionally most drag queens have been gay men, and in Blackpool that is still mostly true, but drag is a performance, not an identity: queens can be any gender or sexuality. See every kind of drag.
Blackpool is one of Britain's drag capitals. You can see a queen every day of the week, from a free mid-afternoon set to a full theatrical revue.
Where to see drag queens
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.
Lu-Lu's Cabaret Lounge
A friendly, budget LGBTQ+ cabaret bar on Dickson Road with two bars side by side and about 26 en-suite rooms.
Rendezvous Bar and Rooms
A small, friendly bar with rooms at the station end of Lord Street, with something on most afternoons from Thursday to Sunday.
- Funny Girls, Dickson Road: the full revue, in a 1939 art deco cinema, since 1994. Doors 7pm, show from about 8:30pm.
- Garlands, Talbot Road: free entry and resident queens on from mid-afternoon.
- The Flying Handbag, Queen Street: drag hosts, quizzes and karaoke.
- Peek-a-Booze, Lu-Lu's and Rendezvous: smaller cabaret bars with regular acts.
See drag shows in Blackpool and the best drag bars.
The queens
- At Funny Girls: Betty Legs Diamond, a Blackpool-born original; Miss Scarlett, back in 2026 after six years away; Phoenix Knights; Flexi Belle; Carmen; and Ritzy Reynolds, host of 2026's Hot Girl Summer.
- At Garlands: residents including Shazza, Bonnie la Blue, Campy Galore and Lucy Fur, who has her own Sunday show.
- At the Flying Handbag: Miss Amber, resident host.
- Drag Race stars: Danny Beard opened Sherlock's on Queen Street in 2021 before winning RuPaul's Drag Race UK; Zahirah Zapanta headlined the relaunched Kaos in July 2026.
See every queen on our A to Z.
The legends
- Danny La Rue, Britain's most famous female impersonator, was a Blackpool regular for decades and switched on the Illuminations in 1972.
- George Lacy played the Palace Theatre as "She's No Lady" and was still on stage at the Grand in 1981, aged 80.
- The Flamingo, from 1979, and Funny Girls, from 1994, made drag the centre of the town's LGBTQ+ scene.
See the Blackpool drag tradition and Funny Girls history.
On screen
The 2025 documentary Queering Blackpool grew out of Dr Helen Eadon-Sinkinson's study of Blackpool drag queens, and includes interviews with people from the scene, among them DJ Zoe. See Blackpool on screen.
Etiquette
Tip, keep your phone down during numbers, and don't heckle unless invited. See drag night etiquette.
Sources
Drag and performance: more pages
Drag performersQueens, kings, dames, trans showgirls, faux queens and alternative drag, 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.