Taking place in Millet, Alberta, Decimate Metalfest is the place to be on June 7 & 8, if you’re a fan of Metal, but they have much more going on that you may not have heard about.
The festival incorporated Air Guitar contests and Drag in 2022, and yes it’s back for 2024, plus so much more!
We caught up with the Drag Queens and Kings to chat about the upcoming festival. Enjoy!
Birthday Girl
First off, care to introduce yourselves to our readers?
Sure! I’m Birthday Girl, a local Calgary drag queen and entertainer. I host the Saturday Spectacular at Twisted Element as well as host shows all over Alberta. In 2022 & 2023, I was voted Entertainer Of The Year in Foothills County. Birthday Girl is best described as Calgary’s queen of camp & comedy. Big hair, big body & big personality!
How did you react when you heard you were chosen to be a part of Decimate Metalfest?
I felt very privileged. I was able to host this festival in High River in 2022 and as a metalhead in my early twenties, It was so beautiful to be able to mix my 2 loves together. Sloan and the team are so great to work with and I feel very lucky that I get to be back for a second year!
How important is it for you to perform at festivals like Decimate, where diversity and inclusion are celebrated?
Honestly, it’s wonderful. The queer community and the metal community have long been married in the underground scenes as they were often misunderstood communities. We often oddly look out for each other in the world and it’s so beautiful to be able to see that still happening in 2024. Where DE&I is often used as a trend in most areas, the metal and queer communities have an unwritten understanding of what it means to care for another community and I am so proud to be a part of that.
What can attendees expect from your performance?
While I am not a metal performer, they can expect to see performances that will show what metal means to me. I don’t want to say too much, but it will be amazing!
Have you had the chance to check out the lineup for Decimate Metalfest, and if so, are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see perform?
I’m particularly excited to see Narcotic Wasteland and Syryn. They’re both so great and they appeal to my style of metal. I can’t wait to see them and mosh with them If my wig allows it!
Is there anything else that you’d like everyone to know or that you want to add?
It’s important for representation to thrive, it needs to be thought of and planned ahead of time in a way that’s meaningful, and Decimate has it down. Other festivals could learn from the way Sloan and the team plan this festival. I am so happy and proud to be part of the Decimate Metalfest family!
Connect with Birthday Girl:
Instagram
TikTok
Stretcher H
First off, care to introduce yourselves to our readers?
Hello, my name is Stretcher H., and I am the reigning Alberta’s Next Drag Superstar!
How did you react when you heard you were chosen to be a part of Decimate Metalfest?
I was elated! I’ve spent many years in rural music scenes and cannot wait to be a part of a rural music festival.
How important is it for you to perform at festivals like Decimate, where diversity and inclusion are celebrated?
All art is diverse and all art deserves inclusion. Having drag artists be a part of the festival allows people to know that queer art is valid and exists.
What can attendees expect from your performance?
I love old-school rock, so I’m going to bring the glamorous stylings of KISS to the stage. I have a dance background so I tend to always present high-energy numbers!
Have you had the chance to check out the lineup for Decimate Metalfest, and if so, are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see perform?
I wish I was around to see Syryn and Iron Tusk but since I’m there on June 7th, I’m looking forward to seeing Dahlmers Realm and the Astral Prophets!
Is there anything else that you’d like everyone to know or that you want to add?
We are honoured to have been asked to be a part of this festival and look forward to introducing people to the queer art of drag.
Connect with Stretcher H:
Instagram
Red Silence
First off, care to introduce yourselves to our readers?
My name is Red Silence, and I am a drag performer residing in Edmonton!
How did you react when you heard you were chosen to be a part of Decimate Metalfest?
I was very excited! I love combining drag with other art forms, and performing alongside bands has always been a consistent goal of mine. I also specifically love metal so I am also excited to see the bands perform as well!
How important is it for you to perform at festivals like Decimate, where diversity and inclusion are celebrated?
I think it’s incredibly important to include art forms like drag that are so heavily associated with queerness with festivals that aren’t necessarily “queer events”. Representation and the chance to meet/view drag in person are vital, especially with the assumptions and stigma that have been attached to drag.
What can attendees expect from your performance?
I am high-energy and engaging!
Have you had the chance to check out the lineup for Decimate Metalfest, and if so, are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see perform?
Yes, I have! I am excited to see The Art of Deception, Detest the Throne, and Fallen Stars!
Is there anything else that you’d like everyone to know or that you want to add?
As drag performers, we love to look at our art after our performances, record and tag us! We also loooove cheering! Scream as loud as you want! And please remember we are still people, treat us as such, all of the negative stigma around drag recently has been incredibly dehumanizing and threatening.
Connect with Red Silence:
Instagram
Sharpain Carnage Pristine
First off, care to introduce yourselves to our readers?
My name is Sharpain Carnage Pristine, everyone’s favourite anomaly, and the carnage queen, I got my start in the Edmonton metal scene and have since branched out to a more dragcentric stage but am happily returning to the metal scene through an amazing opportunity with Decimate metal fest,
How did you react when you heard you were chosen to be a part of Decimate Metalfest?
I was really shocked as this is not only a festival but my first out-of-town gig but through the anxiety I have since become very excited for the opportunity.
How important is it for you to perform at festivals like Decimate, where diversity and inclusion are celebrated?
It’s extremely important to me, as someone who finds herself in many environments like this one within Edmonton having inclusivity be a main point and such is a focus even more so since drag and queer people are under such microscopes currently in life.
What can attendees expect from your performance?
A true Alberta dad metal experience.
Have you had the chance to check out the lineup for Decimate Metalfest, and if so, are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see perform?
I haven’t had a chance to give everyone a listen but I’m very interested and intrigued to see what the sound is like and how the pit is at Decimate
Connect with Sharpain Carnage Pristine:
Instagram
Damien Ghoul
First off, care to introduce yourselves to our readers?
Greetings! I’m Damien Ghoul, a Gen-X, trans-masc, nonbinary Drag King based out of Edmonton, and I’ve been doing Drag since 2020.
A life-long metalhead, and enjoy most genres of metal and hard rock, I grew up watching Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. When my favorite videos came on, I would sort of mimic the bands with lipsync, or by doing some air guitar, or air drums, or air bass… I basically wanted to be these guys in these bands, but alas, music itself was not my forte (although I did play drums for several years in junior high & high school.) It’s important to add that so many of these bands I loved were always in makeup and cross-dressing… let’s be real, it was basically Drag.. So here we are, 35+ years later, and I am again running around lipsyncing and doing air guitar to my favorite heavy music, just now with way more makeup and costuming! It’s as close as I’ll get to fulfilling my childhood dream of being one of the dudes in the bands!
I incorporate elements of horror into my drag as often as I can, and I’m Edmonton’s 2022 Scream Ghoul title winner. Additionally, this year will be my second season as a scare actor at Deadmonton House, and recieved the Best New Actor of the 2023 season. I just love all things creepy.
Finally, I do Drag as a form of therapy. Being a queer kid growing up during a time when there was zero Queer representation, particularly in a religious home, provided me plenty of trauma. The thing that remained constant was the music (even though that too was often hard because of the religious part.) I use drag as a way to process all that trauma, and as a way to take back those parts of my life.
How did you react when you heard you were chosen to be a part of Decimate Metalfest?
I had originally heard about Decimate having some Drag performers on a Facebook post somewhere and reached out to inquire. But, at the time it seemed I was a bit too late hearing about it, and they had already dealt with casting for the fest. I was definitely bummed! However, a few weeks later, Stretcher reached out to me about it, and of course, I was immediately on board (obviously!)
I was initially a bit shocked, as I definitely wasn’t expecting it after I had already looked into it a few weeks prior! But I was, and still am, overjoyed to have the opportunity! This is definitely a bucket-list gig, and I am grateful beyond words!
How important is it for you to perform at festivals like Decimate, where diversity and inclusion are celebrated?
This question and my answer to it bring up lots of emotion for me. It’s so important to recognize the intersectionality between the Queer and Metal (or other alternative leaning) communities. Especially right now when there are people everywhere that don’t want to see Queer people recognized in “their” spaces, or worse, believe that Queer people present some sort of threat. (Like those people who will bring their child to a Metal show, where they probably are singing about Satan, and that’s OK, but a show with a Drag Queen is bad.)
I have recently started producing an event (Damien Ghoul’s Wicked Cabaret) with this exact goal in mind: to create a space for the Metalhead (and other alt-type) Queers and allies to come together to celebrate the intersectionality and diversity within these communities.
Seeing this happening elsewhere (in this case at Decimate MF) brings me tremendous amounts of joy, and I absolutely love to see it, and have the opportunity to be part of it!
What can attendees expect from your performance?
Do not expect “typical” drag from Damien Ghoul. Do expect heavy metal, storytelling, props, blasphemy, and horror. 
Have you had the chance to check out the lineup for Decimate Metalfest, and if so, are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see perform?
Honestly, the only band I’ve seen out of the lineup for Decimate is Iron Tusk (they are fuckin great!) So ideally I’d love to see all the bands. However, I’m particularly excited to check out the ones happening around my stage time (Dahlmer’s Realm and Necht.)
Is there anything else that you’d like everyone to know or that you want to add?
I hope a shameless plug for my next event is ok! An evening of horror, metal, alternative performance art, and a night market with local vendors and artists! :
Damien Ghoul’s Wicked Cabaret – Chapter II: The Freakshow – June 13 – 7 pm – at The Dive Bar – 9692 Jasper Ave (Edmonton) 18+. Check it out here.
Can’t wait to see you all at Decimate! 
Connect with Damien Ghoul:
Instagram