Alternative Miss World: The subversive pageant show spreading joy since ’72

If you’re not familiar with the famed Chislehurst Caves, they are essentially a labyrinth of man-made tunnels, forming a maze which covers some 22 miles in Chislehurst in southeast London. Over the years, the caves have served various functions. During World War II they were said to have become something of an underground town as they acted as the largest deep air-raid shelter outside London, protecting over 15,000 people every night during the Blitz. Throughout the 1950’s, ’60’s ’70’s the caves were used as a venue for dances and concerts, providing a stage to the biggest names in pop and rock.

And in 1986, the caves were due to hold the seventh edition of the Alternative Miss World pageant, a contrarian take on the stereotypical beauty pageant with a decidedly queer contestant base. “The theme that year was Earth, so I thought it would be a great idea to hold it in the earth itself, inside the Chislehurst Caves,” Alternative Miss World founder Andrew Logan tells Attitude. However, in the days before the pageant was due to take place, the town’s local community was aflutter thanks to a salacious and homophobic article in the local newspaper, damning the event.

“Two days before, the local police or council got hold of it. It was the time of AIDs just coming around, and the headlines of the local paper read: ‘This is no cucumber sandwich and tea party,’” Logan recalled.

“They assumed that people were going to go to the toilets in the Caves, and that AIDs was going to go down the pipes, up into people’s houses, and everyone was going to get AIDS. The ignorance!”

The event was abruptly cancelled, leaving Logan and his team only 48 hours to rearrange everything and successfully pivot the event back to its venue from the previous year, Brixton Academy.

This Friday 28 October, Alternative Miss World will celebrate its 50th anniversary with another spectacular event, held this year in the esteemed Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London. Described by Logan as “a surreal art event for all round family entertainment,” the pageant was first conceived in 1972 as a response to the hugely popular Miss World pageant which celebrated the most traditional standards of beauty and grace. Like its namesake, the competition has three sections – daywear, swimwear and evening wear. It also includes cabaret style performances and typically holds a lot of surprises for its awestruck audience.

Inspired also by a visit to the Crufts dog show, contestants are judged on the same criteria as Crufts dogs – poise, personality and originality. Although no iteration of the event is quite like the last, Logan acts as the red thread tying them all together as its devoted host and hostess, MC-ing the event each year in a custom, half femme, half masc garment.

It’s safe to say it’s been quite the journey to Shakespeare’s Globe. The inaugural Alternative Miss World in ‘72 was hosted in Logan’s studio in Hackney, an abandoned jigsaw factory. Its earliest editions were attended by the likes of David Hockney, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and guest judges over the years have included Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Tim Curry, David Bailey and Zandra Rhodes. Its second edition was judged by Angie Bowie – yes, that Angie Bowie, of ‘David Is Dead’ fame. Unfortunately, her husband at the time, a little known musician named David, was unable to make it inside due to overcrowding in the venue…

The pageant’s 1978 edition was the subject of a documentary film by Richard Gayer, entitled The Alternative Miss World, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was later screened in Leicester Square the same evening as the actual Miss World contest in 1980, much to the chagrin of Miss World organisers who attempted, with the help of future Prime Minister Tony Blair’s representation, to block the screening, though their case was dismissed.

Fast forward to 2022, Logan has been hard at work all year putting together an extravaganza that will sufficiently honour the last 50 years of this one-of-a-kind event. Taking place this Friday (October 21), this year’s theme is Gold. “I had no idea in 1972 that I’d be doing this 50 years later,” he told us. “But the idea has always been to carry on ‘til I die, even if I’m carried on stage on a stretcher. It’s been through so many generations that now there are previous contestants’ children entering.

“I’m so fascinated with how, in the last 50 years, society has changed, and obviously so many other things, but people basically are the same.”

It’s true, a great deal has changed in the past five decades including, not least, a sharp incline in the popularity of alternative performance art and drag, thanks, of course,  in part, to a certain Miss RuPaul, as well as shows like Ryan Murphy’s Pose and the HBO Max reality competition Legendary which have shone a light on the world of ballroom culture. So where does Logan believe his event fits into the landscape in 2022? The answer is simple: “It doesn’t!”

“Yes, drag has become very popular and everything, but Alternative Miss World continues to stand on its own,” he said. “It has its own wonderful little identity, and all these other things happen around it, like drag and RuPaul, but it’s really got nothing to do any of that.” The performance style and vibe of Alternative Miss World certainly share many similarities with the ballroom culture of New York City, which just happened to be finding its feet across the pond at exactly the same time as Logan’s pageant was establishing itself in London in the early 1970s.

“I think a lot of these things run, unconsciously, alongside each other, from continent to continent, perhaps especially with America and the UK.” A sort of disregard for country borders is, in fact, quintessential to Alternative Miss World. The pageant has always been fantastically diverse, with contestants partaking from all around the globe. The last two winners, Sasha Frolova and Andrey Bartenev, both hail from Russia, and furthermore, this year’s competition will be guest judged by Svetlana Kunitsyna, a writer from Moscow who managed to get out of the country, Logan tells me.

“It’s very sad because the Russian contingency really understands Alternative Miss World,” he laments. “I’ve been going to Russia since the mid-80s, and their creatives are incredible.

“I think it’s very sad that creatives can’t continue exchanging ideas around the world. That’s got to be the saviour of the world, hasn’t it? We have to work together, not isolate each other. Sadly, people can’t even get visas now so there’s no possibility of them partaking.” A pageant queen arguing for world peace – who would have thought it?

As for what the future holds for Alternative Miss World, Logan tells me there has been talks of holding an event in Spain next year, as well as plans for a photo book documenting all of the pageant’s previous contestants, spanning all the way back to 1972. This follows an Alternative Miss World ephemera exhibition which was on view at De Montfort University in Leicester last year, after Logan donated his archive of costumes, slides, photographs, diaries and writings about the pageant for display

“When I’m not here any more, I want people in the future to be able to see my attitude to life, which is all about joy,” he explained. “Oh, we haven’t spoken about joy yet! Well, that’s my message to the world, joy.” And so, to conclude, we asked Andrew to tell us about the joy that comes from what he does with Alternative Miss World.

“I think it’s that moment when I come on stage, this feeling of joy is just immense. Once that goes, then that’ll be the end of it. But every time I’m so overwhelmed by it. It’s just wonderful.”

Alternative Miss World takes place at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London on Friday 28 October. Stream the event live from 18:45 BST below: