Goth clowns and pink cowboys: Portraits from the crowd at Chappell Roan

On a sticky summer night in August, some 40,000 people poured into central Edinburgh for Chappell Roan’s Summer Session. The Midwest Princess has quickly become pop’s most loved maximalist, known for her camp, over-the-top beauty looks that draw from cult films, drag and pageantry. Within her slow-burning, then all-at-once rise to fame, the pop princess has offered up a carousel of experimental beauty looks that have kept the Dazed Beauty desk busy.

For her biggest headline show to date, the singer stormed the gothic-fantasy castle stage in a jester-cut costume, eyes loaded with maximalist glitter and a pursed dark lip to match. But Roan wasn’t the only spectacle of the night. Turn the camera inwards, toward the coruscating crowd spilling out of the field, and you’ll find a league of what photographer Marilena Vlachopoulou calls “little Chappell Roans” as she got in the pit to capture the superfans’ glam.

“I love photographing music fans and these are one of my favourite groups as they like to really have fun with it and put in all the effort to look as fabulous as if they’re the ones performing on stage,” she says.

Lift up the pink cowboy hats (an ode to track “Pink Pony Club”) and construction helmets (an ode to track “The Giver”) and you’ll find recreations of some of her most iconic beauty moments. Some pull directly from her music videos: faces lacquered in pearlescent white paint, dripping mascara tears and encrusted with gemstones. Others take from various pop-cultural moments she’s thrown into the zeitgeist – with jilted prom night looks referring to her Tiny Desk performance and sad clown make-up mimicking Grammys night.

While Roan set themes for her circuit of venue tours, the Edinburgh Summer Session was left in the hands of the public. “Although there wasn’t an official announcement as such this year, it’s still super cool to see fans are still following in those footsteps and having fun with all the different looks and seeing them all come together in the one place,” says Vlachopoulou, describing the crowd as “a big celebration of queer.” It’s a welcomed departure from the usual crowd uniform of fresh merch tees.