For many Queer people, there is no place scarier this Halloween than a rural town buried in the eastern region of the Pacific Northwest. With one of the most polarizing elections in decades looming in less than a week, and attacks on LGBTQ+ communities on the rise, it may seem hard to be visibly Queer this Halloween. However, for the small, robust crowd in Bend, Oregon, there has never been a better time to be out, loud, and proud.
Nestled among the trees, against the backdrop of the Three Sisters mountains, sits the Campfire Hotel. A Queer oasis "where everyone is welcome around the campfire," this charming establishment is more than just a small-town rest stop between Portland and San Francisco. For anyone who has ever watched Dan Levy's Schitt's Creek and wished they could visit the Rosebud Motel, the Campfire provides the same charming vibes, complete with a heated pool, a large firepit, and charming bar where you can sip your favorite wine and not worry about the label.
Drag and dancing
On Saturday, October 26, it hosted a lively Halloween gathering for Eastern Oregon's Queer community. Guests traveled from near and far to partake in the activities, which included "Diva Drag Brunch" and "Halloween Spooktacular."
Hosted by Salem's Lylac, the brunch was an exuberant celebration of all things "spooky-ooky." Lylac kicked the show off by entering in a straightjacket she soon slipped out of. "I had a couple of outfits today, but I love horror movies, anything Halloween-based," she said. "My first outfit was all blood splatter and very gory. I love combining spooky and glamorous at the same time."
Her performance was full of life despite her corpse-like makeup. The energetic crowd showered dollar bills as she high-kicked and somersaulted over the hard ground. After concluding her first riveting performance, Lylac introduced the show and encouraged everyone to show support to the many first-time audience members.
Sandy Van Meer was one of those first-timers. The septuagenarian traveled down from Astoria to celebrate her daughter's 50th birthday by watching one of Oregon's best-known drag performances. "It was crazy. I did enjoy it very much," Van Meer said after the show. "I admire their abilities and their courage, and just everything about them: their makeup, their hair, their clothes. It was great."
Next on the stage was Emmy-winning performer Jayla Rose Sullivan, whose previous credits include Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrls. Sullivan stunned in her creepy, bloodstained-makeup look. She immediately seduced the crowd, who only fell deeper in love with every layer of clothing she removed.
For her second performance, Sullivan somehow outdid herself, revealing her boobs in a bewitching and bejeweled cutout dress. She jumped and shimmied around, even motorboating a cross-dressing patron (in costume as Schitt's Creek's very own Roland Schitt).
Another highlight of the dastardly and delicious show was Riley Burrows, who stunned the crowd speechless in her creepy ode to Rihanna. Dressed as a demon, Burrows showed that the dark side is not only more fun but more sexy! In her final move, Burrows death-dropped straight to hell, leading the room to erupt in a roar of applause.
Before guests funneled out, Lylac left everyone with an important message. "I'm so proud of Bend," she said. "You continually show up for the Queer community. It is an election year, so I need you to be just as loud as when you are here and we are entertaining y'all as when we're not.
"Just because I take the hair off, just because I take the nails off, just because I take the makeup off, doesn't mean I don't still deserve your support. I need y'all to be just as fucking loud as you are here at the motherfucking polls!"
The message hit home for a lot of people, especially first-time attendees like Van Meer. "I think the finale, and the message about inclusiveness and voting, it's really important to me," she said. "I value the right of every person to live the life they want to live."
After the show, Lylac told the SGN, "I will say, for Diva Drag Brunch, we do tend to have a really good time with people. Every time we're out here at the Campfire, they just know how to treat us well. The energy is always out there, so outrageous."
Brunch was just the beginning of Saturday's fun-packed agenda. Just a few hours after the mimosas stopped flowing, guests gathered on the dance floor for the Campfire Hotel's Halloween Spooktacular, a night of jubilation for the hotel's Queer patrons and their allies. Families gathered around the fire to roast s'mores, singles mingled to the tunes spun by an'80s-themed DJ in the Canteen Bar, and couples got a little freaky in the heated pool and hot tub, where steam rose like fog off the Black Lagoon.
While it can feel scary to be openly Queer in small PNW towns, especially east of the Cascades, LGBTQ+ locales, like the Campfire Hotel, continue to provide safe spaces where they can let loose, dance, and enjoy Halloween.
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