Cape Town Pride 2026 Gets Slippery With Drag-Hosted Lube Wrestling

Cape Town Pride 2026 has added a slippery dose of spectacle to its official programme with the launch of a drag-hosted lube wrestling arena, created by queer- and woman-founded biotech startup OANA Regeneraceuticals and its debut brand, Backdoor Botanics.

Taking place on 28 February at the Green Point Track as part of the Mardi Gras, the activation blends performance, humour, and crowd participation, with bouts hosted by drag MC Stella Rosé.

Contestants will compete inside a lube-filled arena, attempting to remove a sock from their opponent, a deliberately light-hearted rule designed to prioritise entertainment over aggression.

While the arena is likely to draw cameras and crowds, its creators say the intention goes beyond spectacle.

“Pride has always been about visibility, joy, and refusing to be quiet,” a spokesperson for Backdoor Botanics and OANA said. “This activation is playful by design, it invites laughter first, and curiosity second”.

A Pride debut with a point

The event marks the public debut of Backdoor Botanics, an intimate-care brand developed using clean-science formulation principles drawn from botanical research and tissue-care practices more commonly associated with skincare and barrier-care products. The brand positions itself around comfort, ingredient transparency, and frequent-use tolerance, rather than medical claims.

Speaking to MambaOnline, OANA co-founder and self-described “Lube Daddy” Duncan Stevens said the Pride launch was a deliberate attempt to shift how queer intimacy is treated within the wellness industry.

“We hope it signals that queer intimacy in South Africa, and more broadly, deserves products built with the same seriousness, care, and intelligence as any other part of health and wellbeing, without losing humour or joy,” Stevens said.

He added that queer consumers have long been underserved or misunderstood by intimate-care brands.

“For a long time, intimate-care brands have either talked down to queer audiences or treated us and our bodies as a novelty or a ‘cash-rich’ consumer group. Our Pride debut is about correcting that,” he explained. “We’re saying: you can be playful, sex-positive, and culturally fluent and still take tissue biology, safety, and recovery seriously.”

Beyond the spectacle

Although the lube wrestling arena is expected to generate strong visual media interest, Stevens said the brand’s ambitions are quieter and longer-lasting.

“If people remember Backdoor Botanics after Pride, we don’t need them to remember the spectacle,” he said. “We want them to remember the feeling, that sense of ease, comfort, and trust in a product that actually understands their body.”

The hope, he added, is that the activation prompts a broader rethink of how intimate care is designed and marketed.

“Ideally, it leaves a question hanging in the air: ‘Why hasn’t intimate care always been built this thoughtfully?’ If that question lingers after the music stops, we’ve done our job.”

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