As we gear up for Dublin Pride, performers across Ireland are putting their finishing touches on their sets. This year, the theme is ‘Shine’, so Sarah McKenna Barry caught up with a number of artists to determine what makes a Pride performance pop.

Regina George

Regina George, a mainstay of the Dublin drag scene, is renowned for her dancing skills, so it’s unsurprising that the first time she performed at Pride, she was a backing dancer.

“My first Pride was in 2006, in a small space outside the Dublin Civic Offices,” she shares. “I was actually a backing dancer for, believe it or not, Annie Balls and I was joined by a fresh-faced Paul Ryder. The next Pride, I was in drag for the first time.”

With a solid grounding in dance – she trained in everything from Irish to ballroom to hip-hop – Regina was in comfortable territory when she started performing in drag.

“I’ve been dancing since I was a kid, so I kind of had the performance side of drag down,” she says. “I was competing in competitions in Ireland and Europe and drag kind of came naturally. I stayed in dancing until I was 22. At that stage, I had been doing drag for three years. I couldn’t really manage both, so I chose drag full time.”

Throughout her career, Regina feels that her performance mantra has changed. “Everyone you meet on the scene teaches you something different – it’s been unreal – but the biggest thing that’s changed is my outlook on performance. It’s gone from ‘I want to do this solo’ to ‘I want to put on the best show for the audience.’”