About this Event
Artistic Alphabet Mafia and Parallel Play are excited to present…
Dragalicious Dilly Dally: A queer, masked, food-centric outdoor event with drag performances, a plant swap, karaoke, collaborative crafting activities, art and food vendors, many quieter, sensory-friendly garden spaces to explore, and more!
CALL FOR COLLABORATORS, PAID PERFORMERS & VOLUNTEERS: We intend to spotlight folks who are underrepresented in Drag spaces, such as BIPOC, drag kings, and trans drag artists. We are also looking for a queer-led organization or local chef to partner with us in curating our Dragalicious Dinner menu. Please reach out if you are interested in joining the team or volunteering with us!
Entry Cost:
Tickets are pay-what-you-can at $0, $5, $10, $20 levels. We will be collecting free will donations at the event for the community meal that will be split between various mutual aid causes (TBA!), Dilly Dally operating costs, and paying our artists and collaborators.
Saturday, August 31st from 4-8 pm
Schedule:
4 pm - Snacks and mocktails served; Plant Swap(details TBA) & Karaoke begin
5 pm - Dinner (Free / Name your own price)
6 pm - Food-Themed Drag Performances
7 pm - Dance party with DJ Dickey Black
The Venue:
El Paseo Community Garden in Pilsen (944 W 21st St, Chicago) - Stroll through the space, rest at the benches provided, enjoy the natural habitats and public art, play board games at The Garden Table, or take an educational forage walk through the permaculture site.
Accessibility Info:
El Paseo is located on mostly flat land, with a concrete path going through the center of the garden. There will be a wheelchair accessible porta potty and we are working on finding a rollout mat to allow easier access to the grassy area where the Drag performances will take place - please reach out to us if you have any leads on this! There are picnic tables and benches throughout the garden, but we encourage guests to bring folding chairs and picnic blankets so that seating can remain available to those who need to access it. Free water bottles will be available and our dinner menu (TBA) will be as allergen-free as possible. Street parking can be sparse near the garden, so we encourage folks to carpool or take transit when possible (the closest CTA train stop is the wheelchair accessible Halsted Green Line station, located .6 miles from El Paseo). The organizers are working on arranging an accessible parking area, and will release details as this develops. The last three photos on this page were taken at El Paseo. If attendees have specific access needs, would like additional photos of the space, or have any questions, please email us ([email protected]) prior to the event, or notify one of our volunteers at check-in.
COVID-19 precautions:
This is a *flexible* mask-required event. Because Dragalicious has a community dinner element, guests will be removing their respirators to eat and drink. In alignment with Parallel Play's flexible mask policies for outdoor events, we ask our community to participate in reciprocal masking when in close proximity to others who are themselves wearing a respirator.
Hosting events outdoors in a Chicago Summer creates unique challenges for many disabled people. Those who struggle with temperature dysregulation, POTS, vertigo, or any other condition that makes masking in the heat inaccessible are welcome to unmask as needed.
While unmasked (either for medical reasons or while consuming food/drinks), we ask that guests distance themselves from others as much as possible.
The performance: To protect Parallel Play's growing medically vulnerable community and the performers, the front section of the audience will be a mask-required area for the duration of the Drag performance.
The organizers highly recommend that folks mask extra carefully in the week leading up to Dragalicious and that they rapid test for COVID immediately before the event if it is possible/accessible to do so. We kindly ask guests to notify us if they test positive for COVID-19 or the flu in the week following Dragalicious so we may anonymously share that info with our community.
If you are feeling unwell in any way, please stay home! There will be other Dillys to Dally.
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Your hosts:
Artistic Alphabet Mafia: The official silliest queer arts focused event group (sober focused/COVID-safer) located in Chicago. Alphabet Mafia strives to create more inclusive queer spaces through collective art making, centering accessibility, and bringing out attendees inner(gay) child.
Parallel Play: Fostering community among COVID-cautious people in Chicago by creating safe, accessible, and creative spaces that center the liberation of LGBTQIA+, immunocompromised and disabled individuals, and people of color through mutual aid, supply drives, and collaborative arts partnerships. Parallel Play hosts Dilly Dally: a mask-required mixer series for COVID-cautious queers (and allies). Each event is a little different, with activities ranging from karaoke, dance parties, variety shows, bingo, plant swaps, community dinners, speed-friending, and more!
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
El Paseo Community Garden, 944 West 21st Street, Chicago, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 20.00