Seven rainbow-coloured Drag Queens on Segway Personal Transporters (PTs) were amongst the brightly shining stars of Auckland's Pride Parade last weekend.
Drag Queens drag race on Segway PTs (Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand)
Floats, performers and tens of thousands of on-lookers filled the length of Ponsonby Road on Saturday afternoon, in a scene that could have been New Orleans, San Francisco, Sydney or Rio de Janeiro. Amongst them, the 'Segway Queens' performed a show-stopping dance routine to Madonna's song 'Express Yourself' as they rolled down the road. It was tweeted worldwide ("Drag queens on segways looking fabulous") and broadcast nationally on
TVNZ One News,
TV3 News and on video at the
NZ Herald and
Stuff websites.
Forty groups participated on the day, and performer 'Tess Tickle' has advised that her group on Segway PTs "...won Best Drag Entry! We beat all the big budget floats." According to Tess, this is the first time a troupe of drag queens has performed on Segway PTs anywhere in the world.
Express magazine reports:
Tess who choreographed the fabulous drag queen Segway number says, ”Wow, a very big thank you to everyone who helped put our entry together, you know who you are and I hope i didnt torture you too much. Its the icing on the cake to get this acknowledgment but in the long run its about the spirit and support we all got going down ponsonby road representing who we are as one community.
The troupe approached
Magic Broomstick Devonport Segway Tours to borrow half a dozen Segway PTs for the big day, and Segway NZ provided an additional two PTs to complete the fleet.
