Sheffield’s alt-drag scene throws open the doors on its most ambitious day yet as Cryptid Queers presents Cryptid Queers Fest ’26 – billed as the world’s first Drag Monster festival. Landing at FORGE Warehouse on Saturday 8 August 2026, this is a full-day plunge into the weird, the ghoulish and the gloriously strange, running from mid-afternoon right through to the small hours. Created and produced by King Confuza, the project has already picked up the Sheffield Arts & Culture Award, and this festival is its boldest statement to date.
Headlining are two heavyweights of alternative drag: HoSo Terra Toma, 2 X Finalist of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula S4 & Titans!, and BLACK PEPPA, the Birmingham powerhouse and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finalist. Horror-drag artist Cadaverous Black brings a full set of live vocals, magic and fire.
HoSo is a South Korean-American artist whose drag draws on yokai, the monsters of Japanese folklore, and it runs through everything she does: face-warping makeup, intricate and genuinely unsettling costume, and a stage presence that has made her one of the most distinctive performers to come out of Dragula. She arrived on the show’s fourth season as its first international competitor and one of its youngest, reached the final, then returned months later for the all-stars season, Titans, and made that final too. The name carries its own history: HoSo from the Korean, and Terra Toma after the teratoma, a nod to the lymphoma she was treated for. Sheffield rarely gets her; this is a real coup for the festival.
Expect far more than shows. The day spans an Up and Coming Artist spotlight, a Drag Monster All Stars cabaret, the live Crowned Cryptid 26 competition, monster-led workshops, walkabout performers, meet and greets, and a sprawling queer alternative market of independent makers and traders. As night falls, guest and resident DJs carry the party to close.Who you will see. The day is held together by three hosts. King Confuza created and produces Cryptid Queers, and has built the whole drag monster project in Sheffield from the ground up. Bipolar Abdul is one of the best-known faces on the local circuit, a self-described living cartoon who hosts across Retro and Crystal and runs the Doncaster night FLUID/ITY. Binbag, hostess of Trash Haus and a Camp Cryptid graduate, brings the collective’s punk-edged, horror-soaked style to the mic.
Around them is the widest bill Cryptid Queers has put together. The cast features Neapolitan Vonschweets, a regular on Sheffield stages whose makeup work is some of the most striking on the scene, alongside Jada Love, Romeo De La Cruz, Cake Boi, Sweet Boy, Elena Blvck, Matt Hazzard, Eva Serration, Tysie Blaque, Miss Diagnosis, Nefarious DeVile, Mordecai, Bella B Damned, Calamity Satire, Coffin Goblin, Pesty Cide, Folkme Arder, Hotpot, Lux Matter, Haus of Piecost and G4YBOY, plus the Camp Cryptid class of 2026.
The live Crowned Cryptid ’26 competition puts Eve Trankenstein, Gutter, Heretic, Tom Foolery, Xaymaker and Xena Morph in front of the crowd for the title. There are workshops too: clowning with Bella B Damned, and stagecraft and storytelling with Mordecai. Disgustay and Elvibra Strapiton roam as walkabout artists, guest DJ Elwood plays through the evening, and Gilly Woo, Kohl and L8N take the after party to close.
It is strictly 18+, fiercely welcoming and genuinely accessible, with step-free entry, wheelchair spaces, accessible loos, seating and a quiet welfare space. Come as your strangest self.
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Discussion
- Shane Rounce 4 weeks ago
Really looking forward to this one! 😀