On Sept. 20, 2012, a groundbreaking drag festival -- called Bushwig -- forever changed the landscape of the performance scene in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
The Huffington Post first brought you the story of Bushwig in conjunction with our series "Queer New World" that documented the explosion of drag culture in Northern Brooklyn.
Co-founded by drag artists Horrorchata and Babes Trust, the festival has grown exponentially from roughly 30 performers its first year to what is expected to be over 150 in it's fourth run -- this weekend Sept. 11-13.
Untitled Queen
"Bushwig is an event that not only acknowledges and honors its predecessor, Wigstock, but also forges new ground with the electric energy of a community living in Brooklyn and beyond," artist and performer Untitled Queen previously told The Huffington Post. "The festival becomes an equal opportunity stage for performers to come together amongst their peers and a huge audience and blow everyone away."
Patti Spliff
What's new this year? Well, for one, Bushwig's founding mothers have moved the festival to a new venue, leaving behind the neighborhood staple of Secret Project Robot for the Onderdonk House -- a massive outdoor space that will give Bushwig an authentic festival feel in a very different way than years past.
Horrorchata
Charlene
As each year passes, Bushwig continues to grow and expand into a vision of the massive drag festival that Babes Trust and Horrorchata talked about during the project's early stages. Just two short years ago Horrorchata told The Huffington Post that she wanted "to make it huge! I want it in a park with more stages, live music, more drag queens, DJs and to bring in local Brooklyn shop venders. That's just a dream -- but dreams can come true and we are the future" -- and now many of these plans for the future have become a reality.
With so many of these aspects of festival culture included within the 2015 installment of Bushwig, it really seems that dreams are, in fact, coming true for the performers navigating the Queer New World of Northern Brooklyn... and we can't wait to see what happens next.
Bushwig will take place Sept 12-13 at the Onderdonk House in Brooklyn, with the warm-up "Bushwig Ball" slated for Friday, Sept. 11 at Lovegun. Head here for tickets and more information.
Check out more photos of the performers below, all courtesy of Maro Hagopian.
Chris of Hur
Scarlet Envy
Aja