Tanana Valley State Fair says drag performance canceled due to threats

“The initial response by the public outcry ended up turning into a safety issue,” she said. “We had some pretty decent threats against the staff and potentially against the artists.”

The performance was being organized and promoted by Out At The Fair (OATF), a California-based organization that works to elevate LGBTQ programming at fairs across the country.

Campenalli didn’t provide details of the threats — citing legal reasons — but did specify that they all came from people who were opposed to holding a drag event. She added that a roughly equal number of people contacted the fair both for and against it.

“We aren’t looking to make any political statement here,” she said. “It was the choice of the board to put safety first.”

The ticketed and 18-and-up event would have taken place in the fair’s big top tent, Capenalli said. Other fair attendees wouldn’t have been able to see inside the tent without buying a ticket.

“We had been working with the fair for a few months now — making sure the event was 18+, a separate ticketed event, and all the precautions you could take even though it was family-friendly just because the word ‘drag’ comes with all this negative perception now for no reason,” OATF CEO William Zakrajshek told the News-Miner over email Tuesday. “Drag is just art from the LGBTQ+ culture and a heck of a good time if done right.”

Zakrajshek added that the fair’s decision to cancel the event makes him feel that fair organizers are unsupportive of the LGBTQ community in Fairbanks.

“The fair doesn’t have the LGBTQ community’s back,” he said. “In a time where it is more important than ever to stand up, have a voice and project each other — not creating these safe spaces for any community, including the LGBTQ one, is a huge lost opportunity.”

Ranim Kowalski, director of the Fairbanks Queer Collective, said they believed fair leaders acted out of fear with their decision to cancel the show.

“There was a lot of pressure for them not to have it and it was just easier for them to cancel it than deal with all this backlash,” they said. “This is stuff that we have to live with, but they took a walk in our shoes for one second and hated it. They gave up. They gave in.”

Kowalski also said cancelling the show sends a message that making threats is an effective way of cancelling events that people disagree with.

“It is a very dangerous precedent,” they said. “It’s enabling really harmful and honestly abusive behavior. If you show them that you’re going to give in to harassment, then it’s going to enable them to do it more.”