On a hot summer Saturday, Jessica L’Whor and La La Queen filled Summit Taco’s backyard with laughter as they hosted drag lotería.
While Summit Tacos has previously hosted lotería, recent sessions have had a little more spice.
Three months ago, April Bliss, an employee at Summit Tacos, met a drag queen at Left Hand Brewery and found her shows to be hilarious, and drag lotería was born.
“We’ve done it in the past without having anything special and it's been really fun as a group, but we wanted to bring something extra to it and these queens are hilarious,” Bliss said.
Lotería is bingo with pictures, the queens call out one of the pictures on the card and the winner gets a prize. Some prizes include gift cards, hats and Summit Tacos merchandise.
Bliss said she enjoys the fact that this event draws a wide variety of ages into Summit Tacos, which in turn creates a diverse audience.
“The very first one we had, it was pretty awesome. There were a couple of groups of younger kids, 18 to 25, and then some older groups which were 50 plus. We do try to keep the audience 18 plus as the queens are hilariously naughty,” Bliss said.
Erin Cantrell and Scott Wieiland attended drag lotería for the first time on Saturday, they are looking forward to an afternoon of fun, laughter and good food.
“We’re just fans of Summit and just trying to show up for anything that they put on,” Weiland said.
Drag lotería is a monthly event at Summit Tacos, and will run for the rest of the summer. The event might continue into October, but that is yet to be determined. In October the queens will decide if they would like to continue to host through the winter.
Through this event Bliss hopes that people not only learn what lotería is, but also about drag culture.
“If they haven’t been to a drag show before, it's almost like an introduction, the queens aren’t dancing, it's comedic and fun. Maybe they will get to learn a little bit more about the drag culture, and maybe explore that a little more,” Bliss said.
Cantrell especially took an interest in drag lotería because she tries to support events geared towards the LGBTQ community.
“Being a part of the LGBTQ community, I want to try and support events that are happening around town that support that,” Cantrell said.
Bliss said she and the Summit Taco community is proud that the owners are both queer and Hispanic. Summit Tacos does several events with the LGBTQ community, like hosting events with Prideful Wellness, an LGBTQ wellness group in Longmont.
“We are always accepting of all communities, we try to bridge different communities within … We are open to all and we think everybody should be,” Bliss said.
