Orlando’s drag scene has a glossy mainstream and it has a basement, and the basement is where the interesting work happens. If you are looking for goth drag in Orlando, the night to know is Dragged From The Grave at Anthem Orlando, 100 N Orange Ave, right in the middle of the downtown nightlife strip. The next edition is Sad Ghouls Club on Monday, September 21, 2026, doors at 7:30 PM and showtime at 8 PM, $13 at the door, 21+.
Sad Ghouls Club: Monday, September 21
This edition is hosted by De Sastre and Sue Cyde, with a featured set from Spit Stormer and beats all night from F1GMNT. Doors open at 7:30 PM, the show starts at 8 PM, and the cover is $13. Bring ID: the room is 21+.
A Monday show is a deliberate choice. Weekend drag in downtown Orlando competes with everything else happening on Orange Avenue, and the acts that thrive on a packed Saturday are not always the acts that reward close attention. On a Monday the room is smaller, the audience came on purpose, and a performer can do something strange without losing the crowd.
What to expect
- Doors 7:30 PM, show 8 PM. Get there early if you want a spot near the stage.
- $13 at the door, 21+. Cash or card, ID required.
- Horror and alternative drag. Heavy looks, smeared makeup, prosthetics, numbers built around dread rather than a pop chorus.
- A rotating cast. Every edition carries a theme and a different lineup, so two shows are never the same.
- Full bar. Anthem’s happy hour runs 3 PM to 7 PM earlier the same day, so you can arrive before the show and stay in the same room.
- A crowd that knows the performers. This is a scene night, not a tourist night.
Where alternative drag fits in the Orlando scene
Drag in Orlando covers a lot of ground. There are brunch shows built for birthday parties, competition formats that run for weeks, tribute nights that fill a room on the strength of one artist’s catalogue, and late-night sets that exist mostly to keep a dance floor moving. Anthem runs versions of nearly all of it across the week.
Dragged From The Grave sits somewhere else. It belongs to the horror and alternative end of the art form, the lineage that treats drag as a visual medium first and a lip sync second. Performers in this corner build looks that would read as costume design anywhere else, and the humour runs dry and dark rather than broad. It is the kind of night where an audience will applaud a silhouette.
If you are new to it, September is an easy month to start. The theme is already seasonal, the cover is low, and the format is forgiving: you can watch one number, decide it is not for you, and still have had a good Monday. If you want to see how the rest of the week is built, the Anthem Orlando events guide lays out the full calendar, and the gay Orlando visitors guide is the better starting point if you are coming from out of town.
Who is on the Sad Ghouls Club bill
De Sastre and Sue Cyde share hosting duty, which in a show like this means more than reading the running order. The hosts set the temperature: they carry the bits between numbers, they keep a first-time audience from going quiet after something unsettling, and they decide how far the night leans into horror before it breaks the spell. Spit Stormer takes the featured slot. F1GMNT is on music for the full night, which matters more than a DJ credit usually does here, because the transitions are part of the atmosphere rather than filler between acts.
Making a night of it downtown
An 8 PM show on a Monday leaves the evening wide open at both ends. Anthem’s happy hour runs 3 PM to 7 PM on weekdays, with power hour from 3 PM to 4 PM on weekdays for the best prices of the day, so arriving well before doors is the cheapest way to do this. Wall Street Plaza and the Orange Avenue restaurants are a short walk in either direction if you want food first.
After the show, Encore Mondays keeps the room going: it is the free house night that runs the same evening and closes at midnight. So the practical shape of a Monday here is happy hour, then the drag show at 8 PM, then whatever Encore turns into. That is a full night out on the cheapest evening of the week, which is more or less the point. The rest of the week is documented in the downtown Orlando guide to Anthem if you want to plan further ahead.
Getting to Anthem Orlando
Anthem Orlando is at 100 North Orange Ave, downtown, steps from Wall Street Plaza. Rideshare drops at the front door on Orange Ave. Street parking is free after 8 PM, on Sundays and on city holidays, and the Central Blvd garage is roughly three minutes away and open 24/7; the Library garage is the overflow pick. Full rates and walking times are on the parking page.
Dragged From The Grave: Sad Ghouls Club runs Monday, September 21, 2026, doors 7:30 PM, show 8 PM, $13, 21+ at Anthem Orlando. Details and the full listing are on the event page. Questions? Call 407-279-0609.
