Wigs on the Waterfront, the popular annual drag event at Auckland's Viaduct Basin, has been moved to a date outside the Hero Festival this year because of a conflict with pop diva Cher. Originally planned for Sunday 20 February, organiser Wayne Nicholas moved the date to March because he would have had difficulty finding enough volunteers and entertainers to fill the programme, as most were attending the pricey Cher concert at North Harbour Stadium on the same day. "Someone said Cher is mightier than Wigs on the Waterfront," he says. "Basically, there were a lot of the artists and volunteers on the day going to the Cher concert, and it was going to make it a very long day for them. Generallly on the day we're up at 5am, and don't get to bed till around 10pm." Asking the gay icon to make an appearance at Wigs was considered at one point. "Oh it was a possibility," Nicholas laughs. "We could have gone down that track, but they do their soundcheck doing the day, so it probably wouldn't have worked." Nicholas expects attendance to be high on the new date of Sunday 19 March, as Wigs will coincide with the NZ Boat Show at the Viaduct on the same day. "On the water behind us there's a lot of floating displays and everything, and we've had a bigger crowd than other years when this show is going on," he says. "As I say to the drag queens, there'll be plenty of sailors down there for you boys."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Sunday, 23rd January 2005 - 12:00pm