Sydney drag queen Ripley Waters wants your help to create biggest float ever seen at mardi gras
A group of Chippendale drag queens is asking the community to dig deep in an effort to raise money for the biggest float Sydney Mardi Gras has ever hosted.
Ripley Waters and his posse have made it their mission to raise more than $10,000 to build the float in memory of renowned drag queen Zaine Fierce, who died in Germany a year ago.
Fierce become a local sensation with his award-winning show, The Little Merdrag, which was originally performed at the Stonewall Hotel in 2007 while promoting the message “Part of Your World”, a message the float will carry.
Waters said he hopes the float, which will have an undersea theme and feature a giant opening clam, will be an unofficial memorial.
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“I wanted to commemorate my friend so we had the idea of having a float made for next year’s Mardi Gras,” he said. “We met a few times and decided we wanted the float to be grand, but not just big – the biggest float there has ever been.
“It will really reflect on our friend, who never did anything small – he always had to be the biggest and the best, so that’s how we want him to be remembered.
“We wanted the float to be based on a show Zaine used to do and we thought the best way to raise funds was with crowd-funding.
“We had a charity night a few weeks ago in Sydney where local businesses contributed prizes and we had raffles and we managed to raise almost $3000.”
To raise the rest of the funds, Waters is now relying on the generosity of strangers through the crowdsourcing site mycause.com.au.
“I did my research and we joined up in an effort to raise the rest of the fund,” he said.
“So far we have managed to raise $900 and I think that really reflects on how many people cared about Zaine.”
Waters intends the float to feature 20 people positioned on top and 120 dancers walking alongside.