Two ways of being a queen

People who don’t know festival queens
often mistake them for beauty queens,
but the pageant worlds are very distinct.
While festival queens often talk about
sisterhood and make close friends from
their travels—like Cattle Queen Kristin
and Hot Sauce queen Lail, shown relaxing
between events—those who compete in the
circuit pageants have a whole different take.
The emcee of the Yambilee luncheon was
Yuwa Vosper, Miss Acadiana, who
represents 23 parishes at once and is a
competitor for Miss Louisiana this weekend.
She was once a festival queen (Catfish) and
though she appreciates the camaraderie of
the festival queens, she says she is now
ready for the different ethos of the circuit
pageants. She sees festival queens more as
doing community service, while circuit
pageants are a competitive sport—for
which she’s more than ready. As she
put it, “I like competition. I’m not going
there to make friends. It’s headphones
and flashcards until it’s time to go on.”