By Sarah Brookbank

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Drag Queens weren’t the only ones taking the stage at GAYla, UK’s drag show, on Saturday night.

By the end of the night, people attending the annual event strutted across the stage just a fiercely as the queens themselves.

GAYla was sponsored by OUTsource, Shades of Pride and the Gay Straight Alliance, and raised money for those organizations and for Big Blue Pantry. Students who came to the event were allowed entry with a canned food donation.

Despite starting late due to “technical difficulties with timing,” Shannon Burgess, a theatre freshman, said that he enjoyed the show.

“I thought the queens were fierce and they slayed,” Burgess said.

Burgess helped with the show, working with the performers and the hosts to make sure the music and order of performers were correct.

Burgess was also one of the many students who took the stage after the show.

Patrick Mason, a political science sophomore and his friend Nela Delija, a biology pre-med senior, struck a pose at the end of the runway. Delija said it was exhilarating to be on stage.

“It felt fabulous,” said Mason.

In a list posted to the Facebook page on April 16, OUTsource listed 10 queens. Instead, five performers took the stage, as well at two UK students who opened the show with a dance. The dance group,  Bridgin Da Gapz, specializes in hip-hop and international dances.

The dancing continued as the five queens performed, bringing the audience to the stage with singles in hand to donate to the host organizations.

All the queens were crowd favorites: Jenna Jive, LaToya Bacall, Phoxee Roxx, Champagene Taylor and UK student performer Robyn Banks.

Jive, in her first number, came off the stage and danced with students.

Randee Miller, a clinical leadership management sophomore tipped Jive during her second number. Miller also won a massage, but said that the best part of the show was all the organizations coming together to put the show on.

“It was fun,” Miller said. “I love drag shows, they’re the best.”

LaToya Bacall also danced with students, one was William Varney, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.

“It was the most wonderful experience of the week,” Varney said.