Kelowna mayor channeling a star for drag transformation

Residents of Kelowna can look forward to seeing their mayor channel his inner David Bowie at next weekend’s Sugar Plum Ball.

Nathan Flavel, who’s been organizing the drag transformations, said Mayor Colin Basran will be taking drag inspiration from the at-times androgynous late musician.

Basran is just one of the six local celebrities who will be taking part in the drag transformations, along with Vincent Jones and Valaura Vedan from KelownaNow.

Flavel said he’s been speaking with each individual participant to help plan his or her unique looks in advance.

“We’ve been meeting with each of them to figure out their individual drag personas,” he explained. “Drag is very specific to each individual person and what they want to represent in their character.”

Flavel should know. He's entered and won drag competitions himself and has years of theatre experience to tap into.

In total, there will be a team of three make-up artists and two hair stylists who will be helping the "celebs" transform. The costume team from Kelowna Actors Studio, where Flavel is the executive producer, will be bringing their dream wardrobes to life.

Flavel said the budgets for the transformations are “quite crazy;” in fact, one of the major expenses of the entire evening (including venue rentals, advertising, music, food and drink) will be getting everyone into drag, he said.

He estimates it will work out to about $500 a person, with him lending many of his own supplies.

For those wanting a peek at the out-of-this-world makeovers the night of the ball, it’s will be your lucky day.

Each participant will be behind glass while they’re getting made up, and the transformations won’t start until about 7 p.m.

“The plan is that at about 10:30 or so, we’ll close those curtains, we’ll do all those final touches and then we’ll bring them out into the crowd for an unveiling and introduction and then they can party for the rest of the evening,” Flavel said.

While it might seem all fun and games, Flavel said the whole thing is also very meaningful. He described coming out in the late '90s as scary, and said years later, people still don’t accept the fact he and his partner want to hold hands in public.

“The idea of showing my partner any affection in a public atmosphere is just never ever heard of. It’s programmed right out of my being,” Flavel said. “So the more we can do to make this more mainstream and less shocking for the general public, the more we enhance the lives of those people in the community who do feel that they can’t be themselves.”

Flavel said as Kelowna’s mayor, Basran is setting an example of community-wide acceptance locally and across the globe.

The rainbow crosswalks painted downtown last year inspired Summerland and Prince George to follow suit, and Kelowna just keeps upping its game.

Still, Flavel said he never imagined he’d be discussing transforming his mayor into a drag queen.

“He’s really pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable for a political figure in a community and I’m just excited to see how that translates to the rest of the province,” he said.

The event will be held at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on July 9, with proceeds going to Okanagan Pride.