22nd Annual High Heel Drag Race

There’s no place like New Hope, and Sunday proved it 👠

A record-breaking number of racer signups and more than 1,000 attendees made our 22nd Annual High Heel Drag Race an unforgettable finale to OUT in October! West Mechanic Street came alive with fabulous costumes, flying heels, pumpkins and community pride as we celebrated “Over the Rainbow – There’s No Place Like New Hope” 🌈

Let’s hear it for our winners:
🥇 afitzm as Lady Liberty
🥈 ChrisLorenc as Ms. Valerie Frizzle
🥉 Aaron Totten-Lancaster as Dorothy Gale

With Miss PumpkinNewHope (aka Michael Gardner) hosting, a Wizard of Oz homage that took us from a nostalgic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to a modern “Oh We Oh,” and the national anthem sung by athena.chanteuse, there was magic from start to finish 🏁

A special shout-out to our Mechanic Street partners, karlasnewhope, nozomusushi.newhope, and zoubinewhope, for serving up hospitality to our community before, during, and after the race 🤝

A huge THANK YOU to our volunteers, racers, and spectator who brought the energy and cheered us on 📣

Racing along our Progress Pride street art, we celebrated everything that makes New Hope special: creativity, visibility, inclusion and belonging 🫂

Take a little magic home, our 2026 High Heel Drag Race T-shirts are now available online: https://shop-nhc.myshopify.com 👕

Photos taken by AlexanderJawn 📸
NewHopeCelebrates #HighHeelDragRace #OUTinOctober #TheresNoPlaceLikeNewHope