Interview: Drag Race UK season tours return with host Divina De Campo

A drag race UK tour, starring the cast of series seven is set to play in venues across the country, beginning April, with series one star, Divina De Campo as host. With no official tour for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK queens running for several years – the last being for series four – a tour featuring the entire season cast is now returning to the scene for series seven thanks for Divina De Campo, Stefan Evans, and Kiki Productions.

RuPaul's Drag Race UK airs on BBC iPlayer / BBC Three

After six years of creative collaboration, including their hit podcast ‘Fierce, Slay, Talk’, award-winning performer Divina De Campo and producer-marketer Stefan Evans joined forces to form Kiki Entertainment - a new UK-based production company “focused on live performance, touring, and digital storytelling across drag, theatre, and contemporary culture”. The first venture under this new banner is the Official RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season Seven Tour: a nationwide production that will set the tone for the company’s ambition: “to elevate drag and live queer storytelling with the same production value, reach, and respect afforded to mainstream entertainment.”

Speaking to Midlands Rainbow, Divina De Campo explained: “There hasn't been a tour for the queens, and I know that for some of the girls this is their first opportunity at going on an actual tour.

“I just felt like it wasn't really fair that they weren't being given that. So, Stefan and I were talking about it, and we said, ‘well look, nobody else is doing it, why don't we?’

“There has been lots of issues in the past with certain UK drag race touring companies not fulfilling all their duties. So, if I'm running it, at least the girls know that they're gonna get paid. Whatever happens, they're gonna get paid.”

The tour which heads to venues across the UK including Birmingham will star winner Bones, alongside fellow contestants: Bonnie Ann Clyde, Catrin Feelings, Chai T Grande, Elle Vosque, Nyongbella, Paige Three, Pasty, Sally TM, Silllexa Diction, Tayris Mongardi and Coventry-born Viola.

“I'm super, super excited because I'm curating the show as well,” Divina says. “Stefan does a lot of the kind of organizing and logistics side of stuff, and I do a lot of the creative side of stuff. And then he is also a creative, so he'll be helping with that side of things as well.

“The ideas that the girls have got are all really, really good, and it's a really diverse range of ‘I'm thinking of doing this, this is my kind of idea’, so they've all got a real clear idea of what it is that they want to do, and that is all very different to each other, which I think is going to make for a really exciting show, because it's going to be a lot of variety on the stage.”

"I always say that drag queens are like herding cats"

Having been burned by touring companies herself in the past, Divina is keen to put everything she’s learned from working with those companies into action with Kiki Productions, and hopes to be able to continue running Drag Race UK tours for future seasons.

“I love working with drag queens. I have always loved drag; it has the potential to do so many different things that you can't necessarily do with a different medium of art.

So, I love drag. Getting to work with drag queens is always challenging, but great fun. I always say that drag queens are like herding cats you know, you've got to keep them on a tight leash to make sure that, A.) they turn up, and B.) they do what they're supposed to do.

“I've got lots of experience in putting on shows and running tours as well, so yeah, hopefully we'll be able to keep it going and make sure that the [next queens] get to tour as well.”