The Fire Ball packs Ojibwe ballroom once again

Popular campus dragshow brings out capacity crowds for a good cause

Story by Trent Tetzlaff, Copy Editor

The Fire Ball, a dragshow supporting gender and sexual equality, was back on campus for the fourth year in a row with sellout crowds for both three hour shows Friday and Saturday nights.

Nearly $20,000 dollars was raised in total over both nights to support the LGBTQA student support fund.

The process to get the shows ready wasn’t easy for the crew to put together though, as many months were put into planning and set up, LGBTQA center intern Rachelle Berzinski said.

“We’ve been working on it since November or September organizing everything,” she said. “Figuring out how much we need and trying to figure out exactly how we would set up the ballroom.”

Although many attend the event for the entertainment value and popularity of it, Chris Jorgenson, LGBTQA resource center coordinator, said it’s about more than putting on a show for the fans.

“What is important about Fire Ball is that those who come as participants, as attendees represent a wide swath of people,” he said. “We have people who travel across state and across several states to be here, and that is really important.”

Although no plans are set in stone to move The Fire Ball into a bigger venue, Berzinski said they hope to be able to move into Zorn arena for the 2016 show.

“What we would actually like to do is push it into Zorn Arena so we have a bigger area,” she said. “Our ultimate goal is to be able to attract more people to the show.”