International drag star Kita Mean is back for this year’s Broken Heel – she last appeared in 2019 – with a packed schedule that’ll allow her to exhibit some of her best qualities from drag to DJ-ing – all with the added fame of having won the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.
“It’s so exciting to be coming back now in 2023. Broken Heel is such a special thing because drag is a huge part of my life,” Kita told the Barrier Truth.
“I touched on it on RuPaul’s Drag Race about how the art of drag, the community of drag, and everything about the excitement of it quite genuinely saved my life. It changed me for the better. And Broken Heel Festival is all about that.
“It’s about celebrating drag and the positive community around it, everyone coming together and putting on a bit of glitter and just having a fabulous, fun, somewhat frivolous time together and getting a chance to forget the pressures of the world for a moment and just be fabulous with one another for a moment in time.
“I think the general vibe is that it’s really a welcoming place for everybody, whether you’ve experienced drag before or haven’t experienced drag before, it’s really a chance for people to let loose and to embody the essence of a drag queen, which is live fiercely and proudly and fabulously, be kind and have fun, and the world is a much more colourful, fabulous place.”
Since undergoing a drastic transformation with her physical health, losing half her body weight since 2019, Kita says she probably won’t be recognised in September.
Her appearance on the Emmy award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race is likely to put that view to bed.
“It’s just lit a brand-new flame inside my heart. I never thought I could love drag even more and now I get to bring all that back to the Broken Heel Festival where a lot of it started, pre this crazy transformation of my life,” she said.
“I’m so excited to be surrounded by these people that just love drag and are ready to celebrate it with me, because as RuPaul said to me, ‘When you get in drag Kita, there’s like a glint in your eye’, and it’s true. I just absolutely love it. There’s something so special about it because it just makes everybody happy. I’m so excited to bring that glint back to Broken Hill and be surrounded by my people.”
Duration the festival, Kita will be hard at work. As well as playing host, on the Friday night, she’ll be on the main stage performing her own show, Delightfully Camp, followed by spinning the decks on Sunday night as DJ Kita Mean.
“I’ve always considered myself a colourful, campy, comedy, fun-loving drag queen and Delightfully Camp is so aptly named because it’s literally just ridiculous silliness, colourful fun movement from the moment it starts to the moment it finishes. It’s a non-stop giddy glimpse into my life,” she says of a 90-minute act that includes super-fast costume changes and fire props.
“After Drag Race, I decided it was time to level up my skills and I invested in learning how to DJ and how to develop my ear for sound and mixing music. And I’ve created what I like to think is quite a unique flair for mixing camp pop music with house music and really bringing the dance floor to life.
“I’m excited I’ve been trusted by the festival to bring my DJing. That’s an exciting part of my career and what I do now, so I’m excited to share that with everybody.
“People can expect to laugh, cry from laughing. It’s non-stop smiles. It’s happiness. And that’s what the world needs more than ever, and that’s what the festival is.
“It’s non-stop joyfulness from not only myself and the other drag acts there, but everyone that comes to the festival. It’s quite literally one of the happiest places in Australia.”
