CMA Fest’s First Drag Brunch Arrived During Tennessee’s “Nuclear Family Month”

There was only one place at CMA Fest 2026 to hear an official playback of Miranda Lambert’s “Crisco”: a Nashville rooftop during the Crisco Disco Drag Brunch, where the song was delivered in shimmering rhinestones and a towering red wig by local queen Vidalia Anne Gentry. The event, though absent from any official programming, was sponsored by Lambert’s new label MCA and stood as one of the festival’s few moments deliberately built for queer visibility.

Lambert herself wasn’t there. Her voice was, along with her songs and her inspirations, interpreted by a trio of Nashville drag performers. Alexia Noelle performed “Heads Carolina, Tails California” in pink satin. Gentry took on “Mama’s Broken Heart.” Heather Sapphire closed with “Little Red Wagon” in black leather, glitter, and fringe. Host Katie Atkin, of the U.K. podcast Girls in Low Places, surveyed the crowd and found a handful of first-timers who had never attended a drag show. They stayed, they danced, and the queens instructed them on proper etiquette — which included shouting “Fuck you, bitch!” with conviction.

The brunch arrived in a year when only three openly queer artists — Ty Herndon, Angie K, and Morgxn — played official CMA Fest showcases. GLAAD held a separate offsite conversation titled Pride and Progress with Fancy Hagood, Shane McAnally, and Kaitlin Butts. Gretchen Wilson spoke with Melissa Etheridge elsewhere. Atkin also organized a panel with the Cowgays — Brooke Eden, Chris Housman, and Adam Mac — which she had hoped to bill as “Gays in Low Places.” The request was denied.

Tennessee’s political climate gave the event an unavoidable edge. Drag is currently restricted under the state’s Adult Entertainment Act, which prohibits performances where minors might be present, relying on the broad claim that drag is “harmful to minors.” The brunch was 21 and up to comply. Governor Bill Lee also declared June — nationally recognized as Pride Month — “Nuclear Family Month” in Tennessee, endorsing only “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted or fostered children” as “God’s design.”

Inside that context, the Crisco Disco brunch functioned less as a party and more as a deliberate act of presence. Queer-centered events at the festival remained scarce, but those that happened went off without incident, drawing no visible presence from the vocal online minority that routinely targets artists like Morgxn. Subversion, for now, arrived through celebration, a Miranda Lambert playback, and an audience learning to tell a drag queen exactly what they thought of her.