Downtown Kansas City was a sea of pink cowboy hats, sparkles and feathers Friday as tens of thousands of Chappell Roan fans gathered on the lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
“Can you believe it? We’re in Kansas City!” Roan told fans near the start of the show.
Roan, who is originally from Willard, Missouri, performed the first of two sold-out concerts on the lawn, renamed Museum and Memorial Park for the event. Kansas City was one of just three stops in the United States on Roan’s “Visions of Damsels and Other Dangerous Things” tour.
Doors opened at 4 p.m., but fans started lining up before 2. An opening drag performance started at 6:30, followed by a set from indie pop band Japanese Breakfast.
Roan took the stage just after 9 p.m. dressed like a fairytale princess, complete with a tall, conical hat. She sang and danced gleefully against a backdrop that looked like a haunted castle out of a storybook. Animations of dragons and birds flew in a color-changing sky on a screen in the background as she performed nearly all of her recent discography.
The Kansas City show was a homecoming for Roan, born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, who was raised just outside of Springfield, Missouri. Her first experience with drag performers, who inspired her performance persona, was at Hamburger Mary’s in Kansas City. During the show, Roan reflected on what it means to perform for crowds in the Midwest.
“It makes me so happy and it makes me feel so loved and so affirmed that this is what I’m meant to do, this is what I should be doing,” she told the cheering crowd. “There’s a lot of ways you can do this job, and it’s never been more clear than now, this year, that actually the only thing I care about is bringing queer people joy.”
Growing up queer in the Midwest is hard, Roan said, which is why she emphasizes her shows as a safe place for queer joy and self-expression. Roan centers the LGBTQ+ community in all her performances — drag queens open each show, and she donates $1 from every ticket sold to organizations that support trans youth.
“There are people just like you all around you, you just don’t see them,” Roan said. “So just know that you are not alone, and you are so welcomed and free here.”
True to Roan’s sparkly, maximalist personality, many of the 30,000 attendees went all out dressing for the occasion.
Roan encourages her fans to express themselves by dressing up for her shows. Lots of fans dressed in the night’s “Pink Pony Club” costume theme, wearing cowboy hats, boots, overalls and fringe — all pink and sparkly, of course — in honor of Roan.
Natalie Roth flew from Maine to see Roan, and rented a fluffy pink crinoline and fringed top from Kansas City costume shop A to Z Theatrical for the show. This is her second time seeing Roan – the first was two years ago in South Carolina.
“I just knew I had to see her again,” Roth said.
Others dressed up in costumes inspired by Roan’s other famous looks: in draped rhinestones like mermaids, in red, leather and animal print, and like court jesters and princesses.
Sarah Lazar drove from Wichita to join her friends Mackenzie Glasse and Hannah Farber for the show.
“The second I heard she was doing a Kansas City stop, I was so excited because like, New York and Kansas City and L.A. is crazy,” she said.
Lazar spent more than 60 hours sewing elaborate court jester outfits for herself and Glasse. Lazar also thrifted most of the material for the outfit.
Joe Grady wore a camouflage shirt and pants striped with orange fringe.
“I started with the camo base, and what goes with camo? Hunter orange. It’s doing that, but more queer,” Grady said.
The outfit was a means of reclaiming his roots, inspired by Roan. He’s originally from a small, rural town in Missouri, too.
“For me, Chappell is just that reclamation of queerness that’s often suppressed in rural areas,” Grady said.
Roan will also play Saturday in Kansas City. The show starts at 6:30, and though it’s sold out, resale tickets are available.
