3 ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ legends will perform on the Mississippi Coast. How to get tickets.

Three legends from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fame will take the stage with many local performers for a drag show like no other before on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Adore Delano, Willam and Jan Sport are coming to the Gulfport-Biloxi metro area and will perform to celebrate local drag queen Tara Shay Montgomery’s birthday.

The big event, called Tara Shay’s Birthday Cabaret, begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 30, at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Immersive Media and Performing Arts Center.

And it won’t be like a midnight performance at your favorite bar. All three of the “Drag Race” queens will be singing live, Montgomery said, and there will be opportunities for conversation and really getting to know Adore, William and Jan.

Montgomery, a Bay St. Louis native, told the Sun Herald she wanted to celebrate her 32nd birthday with a bang, so she and her best friend from high school, Clinton Davis, decided to plan the star-studded performance.

“Drag Race” contestants have come to Mississippi Coast gay bars to perform in the past, and star Silky Nutmeg Ganache is a native of Moss Point. But an event like this has never happened before here, Montgomery said.

“The Coast is really good about bringing nostalgic acts into casinos and modern country artists to festivals, but we never get queer music or pop music, and I thought it was a really cool opportunity to reach out to the mainstream TV generation,” Montgomery told the Sun Herald on a recent Friday night before she hosted an event at Sipps Bar in Gulfport.

“A lot of people have just seen ‘Drag Race’ on TV. I thought it was a great opportunity to bring something of that scale here.”

Local drag queens from Mississippi and New Orleans also will perform at Montgomery’s party, including Biloxi legend Lexis Redd D’ville. Alexa Avery, Seraphina, Catastrophe, Mia Chambers and Courtney Cruise will also take the stage.

Montgomery, an LGBTQ+ advocate, got her start in drag in Jackson 12 years ago after dropping out of college and moved to Los Angeles until the COVID-19 pandemic brought her back home to the Coast. Since then, she’s a regular at Sipps, Just Us and Shade in Jackson. She also performs in New Orleans and you can sometimes see her at the White Pillars drag brunch.

Montgomery said a drag event of this scale couldn’t happen in many other places in Mississippi.

“We have a larger concentration of younger people on the Coast that are making themselves aware and being active in civil rights issues – so they make it a better place,” she said.

Event tickets start at $49 and VIP packages are available. There will be an after party at Sipps.