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San Francisco’s High Princx Pageant Promises a Drag Competition for the Ages

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Eight of the Bay Area's top drag performers will face off at the High Princx Pageant at Oasis in San Francisco on Jan. 18 and 25.  (Chantel Beam)

Last year at the High Princx Pageant, Sassi Fran knew she’d be competing against some of the Bay Area’s best drag performers — and getting judged by them, too. So she and her friends spent hours hand-making dozens of delicate tulle flowers that would make up the robe she’d wear on stage. She was preparing for a moment that would make everyone gasp: On the runway, she dropped her robe and revealed a luminescent mushroom outfit that changed color under the blacklight.

Sassi got a top score that night; the following week, with a high-drama number that incorporated Filipino folk dance, she clinched the victory. Looking back as she gets ready to relinquish her crown when the pageant returns this weekend, she says the two-weekend competition gave her the motivation she needed to take her drag to new creative and technical heights.

“I created something that really pushed myself further than I have before,” she reflects. Indeed, her victory led to high-profile gigs, including opening for RuPaul’s Drag Race royalty Crystal Methyd and Alaska at major venues like San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts and Bimbo’s 365 Club.

Sassi Fran, the winner of the 2024 High Princx Pageant, struts the runway in her mushroom look. (Rachel Ziegler)

Providing a stage for drag performers to elevate their craft is exactly what the pageant’s founder, Tito Soto, envisioned when he devised it as an offshoot of his popular Saturday night party at Oasis, Princess. Since the pandemic, Princess has become San Francisco’s go-to destination for nationally touring drag performers and high-caliber local artists.

Whether a performer wants to levitate above the crowd using a scissor lift, pop confetti on cue with a beat drop or envelop the stage in plumes of fog, Oasis has the technical setup for the “wow” moments fans crave. “It wasn’t until I started doing drag in San Francisco and found Oasis that I realized, this is where I need to be, this is where I can flourish,” says Soto, who had a past life as a theme-park designer in Los Angeles. “This venue gives me the capabilities to use all the tech I need in order to execute the vision that I want to put on a big drag spectacular.”

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On Jan. 18, Princess party-goers will meet this year’s eight High Princx contestants, who include Jeté Guevara, a veteran performer of 30 years with a rockstar energy; Sadie Creekwood, who pushes the limits of campy horror; and Pangaea, a performance artist who delivers surrealist looks with a side of activism. Also gunning for the crown are Vicky Cristina Barcelona, whose high-femme fashions often rep Puerto Rican pride; Mary Vice, a queen-about-town who hosts Pillows at Powerhouse and The Hot Boxxx Girls at Aunt Charlie’s; Jota Mercury, an award-winning drag king who “puts the cheese in machismo”; Mojo Carter, a rising star with a face to kill; and Delilah Befierce, who goes all the way with her cosplayish ensembles (see: her recent glamorous take on the Grinch).

“We want to highlight all the different kinds of drag that you can see, and all different kinds of gender expression and mini scenes,” says Soto. “There’s many different ways of expressing the art form. So we make sure that our cast represents the whole amalgam.”

After delivering their best “creative presentation” runway looks and charming the audience during a Q&A portion, contestants will face off in a lip-sync battle on Jan. 18. The competition will continue with a high-stakes talent showcase on Jan. 25 where performers will pull out all the stops for the finale.

“They are allowed to tell their story, however they want to tell it, in their biggest and grandest and most impactful way,” Soto explains. “And that is the category with the most points.”

Four drag artists pose in dramatic pink outfits.
Princess producer Tito Soto (center, seated) with High Princx Pageant hosts Kochina Rude, Nicki Jizz and Lisa Frankenstein (left to right). (Chantel Beam)

The star-studded judges’ panel includes acclaimed drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia; Rock M Sakura, who repped San Francisco on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12; Oasis owner and San Francisco’s first Drag Laureate, D’Arcy Drollinger; Juanita MORE!, a local legend whose activist endeavors are only outnumbered by her many couture looks; Soto himself and more.

As far as what the judges are looking for? “I want my jaw on the floor,” says Nicki Jizz, who will host the first weekend and judge the second. “I want to see numbers that are moving, sad, funny, ridiculous — sometimes I want all of it at once.”

In addition to big hair, acrobatic choreography and surprise reveals, it’s likely that some performances will include social and political commentary — especially as the incoming presidential administration threatens to strip away trans rights. Over the past four years, Princess has become an avenue for activism on and off the stage. Each week, party co-host Kochina Rude gives a short talk about Narcan and safe partying, which inspired the city to create a drag-powered overdose prevention campaign led by Rude and Nicki Jizz.

“I think drag in the Bay Area is always pushing boundaries,” reflects Jizz on the art form’s growing influence. “It’s always evolving. It’s strong, it’s powerful and it can never be stopped.”

It’s that sort of scene — with equal parts glamor and heart — that Soto wants the High Princx Pageant to nurture.

“When so many people that care so much about the community work together in their own ways to uplift each other,” he says, “then you see the magic happen.”


The High Princx Pageant gets underway at Oasis Jan. 18 and 25. Tickets and details here.

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