Miss Subways 2026 crowns its new queen — inside…
Stand clear of the closing doorways, please — the Miss Subways pageant has just topped a new queen of the rails.
Abby Fantastic, a 40-year-old burlesque performer/native New Yorker based in East Flatbush, sashayed to victory Friday night time when she represented the “A line” at NYC’s annual, fun-filled palooza, held at Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater.
The event honors town’s oft-frustrating, always iconic public transit system, along with the 4 million-plus New Yorkers who use the MTA’s subway every day.
Abby Fantastic, a 40-year-old burlesque performer, was topped this 12 months’s Miss Subways at Coney Island USA. Stephen Yang
“Being a fourth generation New Yorker, I love this city,” said Fantastic, who clinched this 12 months’s “transit tiara” with a two-part burlesque efficiency, dancing to an instrumental model of “Harlem Nocturne” (a 1939 jazz commonplace by Earle Hagen) and “Rockaway Beach” (a 1977 hit by the Ramones) while stripping down to an MTA-blue outfit that included A practice nipple covers. “I’m raising my children here because I want to live in New York …To be able to represent and be here is an honor.”
The expertise showcase, orchestrated by the City Reliquary, featured seven contestants this 12 months, including a combine of burlesque performers, comedians and vocalists, as effectively as a puppeteer and an aerialist.
Dave Herman, founder of the City Reliquary museum in Williamsburg, told The Post that the finalists had been handpicked from a pool of “dozens” of candidates, and that the quantity of would-be contributors for the campy contest has been rising “every year.”
“We wanted to invite people to have a moment on stage with performing/showing whatever their skills may be, but also with an importance on how they represent the ridership of New York’s subway system,” said Herman.
The judges for the 2026 Miss Subways pageant included Bernie Wasgenblast, voice of the MTA, seated from left); Joe Coleman, painter and performer; and Queerly Femmetastic, who was topped Miss Subways 2024. Stephen Yang
“Somebody who has a sense of pride in being a straphanger, and who’s also going to advocate for improvements,” he continued. “There’s a sense of civic pride and stewardship that we look for in candidates.”
A historical past of Miss Subways
The annual contest, which was revived by the reliquary back in 2017, has advanced into a celebratory night full of kitschy theatrics — but it didn’t start that approach.
According to Polly Desjarlais, the New York Transit Museum content supervisor and transit historian, the unique Miss Subways was a scouted-out magnificence contest, somewhat than an in-person showcase, originating back in 1941.
The unique Miss Subways was not an in-person magnificence pageant. Rather, it was a scouted-out contest that finally opened up to rider voting. Courtesy New York Transit Museum
It started shortly after town unified the subway system by merging the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) and BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation) with the city-owned IND (Independent Subway System). Around that same time, the New York Subways Advertising Company had gained exclusive rights to promote advert space on the subways and elevated traces.
Desjarlais explained that one of the org’s first initiatives was to launch “Meet Miss Subways” — a marketing campaign supposed to draw riders’ consideration to the commercials inside subway vehicles and, most importantly, to increase advert income.
The Miss Subways contest first came about from 1941 to 1976. Courtesy New York Transit Museum
While the earliest winners had been “discovered” in on a regular basis locations, thereby getting their pictures and a short biography plastered on subway car placards, the competition — which is widely regarded as one of America’s first built-in magnificence pageants — grew to become so standard that New Yorkers began sending in purposes to nominate the ladies in their own lives.
The sweepstakes opened up to rider voting in the Sixties, with this choice technique persevering with until the competition’s end in 1976.
“A ‘girl next door’ quality became one of the campaign’s defining traits,” Desjarlais told The Post. “Miss Subways winners were not necessarily professional models or glamour girls. They were meant to feel like ordinary New Yorkers — ones who worked, went to school, rode the subway, and had dreams of making something of themselves.”
Former winners of the previous Miss Subways contest gathered at a reunion back in 2009. William Farrington
A contemporary-day remake and this 12 months’s show
While the unique Miss Subways marketing campaign shuttered in 1976 (with a one-year resurgence by the MTA in 2004), the City Reliquary formally revived the competition on a grander scale in 2017 — this time, with a number of Twenty first-century twists.
Instead of a scouted or write-in format, the modern-day model grew to become an in-person pageant with a campier, barely off-kilter really feel. In the identify of inclusivity, Herman and his staff also determined that instead of just opening the competition to younger feminine contestants, people of all gender identities and ages might apply to compete for the Miss Subways crown, so long as they had been over the age of 18.
Contestants collectively felt nervous but excited to carry out for the sold-out show. Stephen Yang
While the event was pressured to take a temporary hiatus for a few years during the peak of COVID-19, it got here back in 2023 — greater and better than ever.
Now, each contestant represents a specific practice line, performing their expertise for the viewers and a panel of judges.
Contestants also reply a collection of MTA-related interview questions — sometimes while dressed in a subway-themed costume — for a probability to win the coveted Big Apple title.
This 12 months, roughly 130 New Yorkers crammed into Coney Island’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater to benefit from the sold-out, offbeat pageant.
Approximately 130 New Yorkers got here to Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater for this 12 months’s Miss Subways pageant. Pictured above is the 2025 show viewers. City Reliquary
Judges included local celebrities Joe Coleman, a painter, author and performer); Queerly Femmetastic, a burlesque performer and Miss Subways 2024; and Bernie Wagenblast, a voice of the MTA, most well-known for saying, “Please stand away from the platform edge”). The night time’s particular visitor announcer was Charlie Pellett, a veteran news anchor and reporter for Bloomberg Radio who is also an MTA voice, identified for his iconic line, “Stand clear of the closing doors, please!”
Brini Maxwell, a “domestic doyenne” drag persona who served as the M.C. of the night time, opened the show with an unique musical quantity, crooning lyrics like “You’ll miss subways just thinking about her…” while concurrently introducing this 12 months’s finalists.
LuXury Leah, best identified for wrestling in Subway Mania, confirmed off her costume that represented the 4 practice. Stephen Yang
Next got here the expertise portion of the night. In addition to Abby Fantastic’s suave burlesque efficiency, contestant acts included an instructional subway slideshow by Jess Joseph (2 practice); a “Subway Mania” wrestling efficiency by LuXury Leah (4 practice); musical improv by Trudy Carmichael (C practice); a music by Alecia Kalsi (Franklin Avenue Shuttle); a “powwow-disco fusion” efficiency by Kaley Morrison (R practice); and hoops act by Sugar Hoops (L practice).
Following a temporary intermission, Act 2 of the pageant included remarks by the representatives of the City Reliquary, Coney Island USA and the Riders Alliance.
Kaley Morrison carried out a “powwow-disco fusion” to pay tribute to the R practice, as effectively as her Native American heritage. Stephen Yang
And in the interview section, pageant contestants had been peppered with questions about straphanger situations and oddies, including, “What’s one change you would like to see on the subway that would have a positive impact on the broadest ridership?” (“Accessibility,” Morrison answered), and “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen on the subway?” (“People full of pigeons — all the love, but I know you’re covered in s–t in there,” quipped Sugar Hoops).
After Miss Subways 2025 Bimini Cricket reprised the standout karaoke efficiency that secured her last 12 months’s title — an unique MTA-coded parody of The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” coined “Ratter’s Delight” — Fantastic was ceremoniously topped Miss Subways 2026.
Wagenblast, judging the kooky contest for the second time, told The Post that to her, the “most fun” facet of Miss Subways is the creativity of the contestants — along with the distinctive approach the pageant honors NYC tradition.
The finalists for Miss Subways 2026 (along with Bimini Cricket, 2025 winner) gathered at the end of the pageant to rejoice a job effectively finished. Stephen Yang
“New York would not be New York without the subways,” said Wagenblast. “It will get everyone around city. It’s not just for one class of people — it’s where all New Yorkers come together.
“To me, that’s what’s magical about it.”
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