Dilly Dally n' Drag + Disabled Makers Market + mask4mask Dance Party

Parallel Play, Rise, and the Dyke Van Dyke Show are excited to present…

Dilly Dally n' Drag: Bugz! A Drag Show, Disabled Makers Market, Dance Party & Safer Community Meal
***CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL DILLY DALLY ACCESS GUIDE***

Join us for a Summer Dilly Dally at Uptown's iconic Haymarket House, featuring COVID-cautious drag performers in a production by the Dyke Van Dyke show (plus a live bug show at intermission!), a makers market with wares by disabled artists and makers with Rise of Riotous Roots, and finishing out with a dance party and house music set by Parallel Play's special guest, DJ Jaydo COVID. There will be a community meal (to-go or outdoors) and dedicated low-sensory spaces for decompression.

This is Parallel Play's tenth Dilly Dally in our series of COVID-safer, mask4mask mixers for disabled queers, by disabled queers. Our events center the joy of folks who have been pushed to the margins due to their practice of COVID precautions. Our community is here waiting for you!

Schedule: 1-5 pm
Disabled Makers Market with Rise (1-5 pm, main room + 3rd floor community room)
Bugz! COVID-cautious drag by the Dyke Van Dyke Show: 2:30-3:30 (main room)
Dance Party & House music set by guest DJ Jaydo COVID: 4-5pm (main room)
Community Meal (1-5 pm, served out of the kitchen and eaten in the back yard or at home)
There will be a 5-10 minute LIVE INSECT SHOW as the drag show intermission, and the insect handler will have a table displaying the bugs in their enclosures during the event. Check out the access guide for table location and full bug info!

Community Meal: Thoughout the event we will be serving a cafeteria-style vegan and gluten-free community meal from the kitchen. Take it to-go to enjoy at home or bring it to the outside to eat spaced out from others in the Haymarket House back yard. The meal will be safely prepared by Parallel Play's resident volunteer chef, Danesh Shamsi, and our organizers. Please make sure to add your meal to your ticket at checkout.

Menu: Brasilian-style meal of rice, beans, roasted seasonal vegetables, and salads, plus a sweet treat made by cherry kauffman, all gluten free and vegan

There will be additional spread out seating in the yard and parking lot so guests will be able to completely avoid the outside dining area if they do not wish to encounter people eating or taking mask breaks. If you are a person who has a higher level of exposure due to your workplace or living situation, please consider the to-go food option, or to carefully find an area very far away from others if eating at the event is an access need.

Entry, Community Meal & Solidarity Fund:
Tickets are pay-what-you-can at $5, $10, $20, or $30 levels. The promo code for free tickets is DILLYDALLY and can be used by anyone who needs it, as we never want ticket cost to be a barrier to attending Dilly Dally. Because ticket revenue typically only covers about 1/3 of the cost of Dilly Dally, we ask those who are able to cover the full price cost of their ticket to contribute their fair share ($20) or, better yet, help subsidize tickets for others ($30: your ticket + half of someone else's).

DD Solidarity Fund: We will be collecting cash and Venmo contributions at the event. The DDS Fund will be split 50% towards Palestinian Family Relief through Rebirth Garments and Vulpinic Vestements, who are in direct contact with families in Gaza, and 50% to cover the cost of free meal tickets for those who cannot afford the cost of the community meal. Any leftover DDS funds will be used to increase stipends for performers and photographers.

The Venue / Accessibility:
Historic Haymarket House in Uptown is an expansive, indoor-outdoor, wheelchair accessible venue owned by Haymarket Books, an independent, radical, non-profit book publisher based in Chicago. "Haymarket House (800 W Buena Ave) is a fully ADA accessible space. There are a few steps leading up to the front door of the building and a ramp entrance that can be reached through the back of the building off Clarendon. All our restrooms are gender neutral and fully accessible. There is one single-person restroom." There will be ample room for our expected 125-160 guests, including three large indoor spaces (one is the 3rd floor community room, accessible via elevator) as well as a large backyard accessed via the ramp.

Parking: There is free street parking in the neighborhood but it can sometimes be limited. Parking for a fee is available at nearby Walt Disney Magnet School on Clarendon Avenue and Belle Plaine Avenue about a block away. There is also metered parking on Broadway a couple blocks from the venue. Guests who are being dropped off can instruct their driver to enter at the gate on Clarendon. There is NOT public parking onsite, but a limited number of onsite accessible parking spaces for disabled guests can be reserved in advance by emailing or DMing Parallel Play.

Public transit:The 146, 151, and 36 buses stop nearby. The CTA Red Line at Sheridan or Wilson are each about 7 blocks away.

ASL: Parallel Play is happy to arrange American Sign Language interpretation services, but will not have an interpreter unless it is a confirmed access need for an attendee. Please reach out to us (parallelplaychi@gmail.com) to arrange ASL by 8/1/25.

COVID-19 precautions:
This is a mask-required event. Guests who are able to wear a well-fitted respirator (N95, KN95, KF94 or equivalent) should do so at all times when inside Haymarket House. Free high-quality masks will be available at check-in. Volunteer mask monitors will give mask-wearing reminders and ask guests to swap their surgical and fabric masks for respirators as needed. Guests will be permitted to temporarily remove their respirators in the outside spaces to eat, drink, or take a quick mask break, in alignment with Parallel Play's more flexible mask policies for outdoor events featuring food. Understanding it is possible to spread and contract COVID outdoors, we ask our community to distance themselves as much as possible and to participate in reciprocal masking when in close proximity to others who are themselves wearing a respirator while outside.

Air purification and performance areas: Multiple HEPA air purifiers for large spaces will be provided by Parallel Play. To protect our community and performers, the stage and front section of the audience will have multiple far UVC light air sanitization devices provided by Rebirth Garments. These will be directed at performers who themselves will be permitted to unmask during performances after a negative molecular COVID test.

Testing & masking prior to DD: The organizers ask attendees to do everything they can to maintain the following precautions: Please refrain from unmasking in public spaces, dining indoors, and high risk activities in the 5 days leading up to the Dilly Dally. If you are able to, we HIGHLY recommend to test prior to the event, ideally either a molecular test within 24 hours, or a rapid on the day of as well as 48 hours prior to Dilly Dally. There will be FREE rapid tests to take home. We kindly ask guests to notify us if they test positive for COVID-19 in the week following using the AFTERPARTY-19 reporting page so we may anonymously share that info with our community.

If you are feeling unwell in any way, please stay home! There will be other Dillys to Dally. We also have a virtual Discord space that live streams performances, is open 24/7, and hosts virtual events!

Action item: Supply Drive for the Care Cubby project by The Artistic Alphabet Mafia & Parallel Play - Leave what you can, take what you need!
High quality respirators (K/N95 or equivalent) & rapid COVID tests
Art supplies (no blades)
Books in good condition
Calling all COVID cautious Disabled Makers & Artists! Sign up to vend here.

A note: those registering for and attending this event may have their photo/video taken for our socials and future content. If you wish to opt out of this, please notify a volunteer at check-in.

Your host:
Parallel Play: Fostering community among COVID-cautious people in Chicago by creating safe, accessible, and creative spaces that center the liberation of LGBTQIA+, immunocompromised and disabled individuals, and people of color through mutual aid, supply drives, and collaborative arts partnerships. Parallel Play hosts Dilly Dally: a mask-required mixer series for COVID-cautious queers (and allies). Each event is a little different, with activities ranging from karaoke, dance parties, variety shows, bingo, plant swaps, community dinners, speed-friending, and more!

View our first year recap & finance report here.