So I happen to be riding a roller coaster at the Universal party at Gay Days in Orlando last week and happen to be sitting next to the owner of the clubs in Ybor City, Tampa, USA. Ybor is the area that most of the clubs are located in the Tampa area..at least the cool ones and the gay ones! He told me that they are planning a huge event for July 4th Weekend this year and that it will feature one of my favorite artists of all time Andy Bell from Erasure. Erasure is one of the all time best groups that you never hear much about but yet they helped make electronic music and gave the gay community something to take their minds off of things when faced with years of discrimination and hate.
Andy Bell from Erasure is scheduled to perform during Gay Ybor Days for the Closing Party at the Honey Pot at 1507 E. 7th Ave. Door open at 9pm for this event. The Opening Party starts out as a VIP event with Idol, Drag and Strip on Thursday, July 1st. Hamburger Mary’s is hosting a Amateur Strip Contest at 12am located on the 2nd floor of the Centro in Ybor. If you have not been to this Hamburger Marys you are in for a surprise its one of the best locations I have seen and you will love the atmosphere!
Friday night July 2nd VJ David Knapp spins all night at “Enter the Ice Age” at the Steam Party at The Honey Pot. Not only does the Honey Pot have a impressive drag queen stage but they have a dancefloor where you can get on levels and show off your moves. Tons of hot guys and good music you would expect from Knapp.
On Saturday, July 3rd, the Official Gay Ybor Event takes place with a bar crawl starting at Reservoir bar at 5pm going on until 9pm. If you are still stumbling around by that time you do not want to miss my favorite club in Tampa called the G-Bar around 10pm. Las Vegas and America’s Got Talent Derrick Barry as Lady Gaga performs at G Bar on Saturday night (probably sometime around 12am?). G Bar has some of the hottest bartenders and shot boys around. There will also be a performance from Matthew Rush at the Ybor Eagle bar down the street if the twinks at G Bar are not enough for you.
July 4th the big day to celebrate America’s Independence there will be a pool party from 3pm to 8pm with a $10 Keg with DJ CK and DJ Jeffrey J spinning poolside at the Green Iguana Hawaiian Village at the Days Inn @ 2520 N Dale Mabry Hwy in Tampa. This is located close to the airport. Following the pool party madness there will be a Miss Firecracker Pageant starting at 9pm at Hamburger Mary’s then the City of Tampa presents a July 4th Fireworks Spectacular best viewed from 15th street parking garage in Ybor City starting after 9pm.
VIP All-Access passes are available for only $69 which includes too many things to list. The hotels in the area closest to Ybor City are the Hampton Inn off of East 7th and Hilton Garden Inn off East 9th.
Andy Bell releases Non-Stop’s first single, Call On Me on June 1st. Featuring an exclusive track, Had It All, plus remixes of the title track from Wyda Productions (Eddie Craig & Jim Sullivan of the Wideboys whose previous remixes include Rihanna and Taio Cruz feat. Ludacris), Vince Clarke, Chicago’s Hey Champ and Deadboy (described by Clash as “the next future garage mastermind destined to blow up in 2010”).
We hit up the Dallas Purple Party main event last night at the House of Blues. The event was in a way one of the most hyped events I have been to in awhile for the North Texas city. You would see it as peoples facebook pictures and not even know who was commenting on fb sometimes because of the purple circle logo. It was also awarded the best circuit party of the year from an online circuit forum “JustCircuit” which is also a sponsor of the event. It seems like there is always something that is going on out of town such as Las Vegas pride or Splash that keeps me from attending the Purple party even though I spend a lot of time in Dallas. I thought I would check it out due to all the past hype it had received and it was its 10 year anniversary.
Michelle Williams took the stage earlier than we expected. She was on stage singing survivor and there was not much warning for her to appear. Normally at these things they will not appear on stage until 1am or 2am. The White Party in Palm Springs acts do not come on until 1:50 or so to keep people waiting and guessing. The former member of the diva group Destiny’s child sung ‘Survivor’ and another DC song before she broke out with one of my favorite dance songs of 2009, “We Break the Dawn.” She almost seemed awkward up there without any dancers singing to the song because in the video it had some of the hottest dancers I have ever seen. I had to replay “We Break the Dawn” a few hundred times to check out them hotties. It was great seeing her live and she loved the crowd so much that she wanted to do another song that has not been officially out yet. She asked a few times if the DJ had the song and they kept trying to play a beat to run her off stage like she was on the Grammy’s or something. Update: This may have just been a communication problem with her manager with what tracks were played. I do feel that she should have had backup dancers though.
We ended up leaving and going to 
White Party 2010
We already have been through night one of the big big White Party. DJ Abel played last night to a crowd wearing nothing but boxers or briefs. It was quite a hot site to see so many walking around in their underwear. the only problem was trying to use a drink ticket and having no wallet to buy the drink tickets which was a big hassle. The alcohol also closes at two for those of us spoiled by drinking in So Florida and Vegas.
WinterParty this year was so much fun just like every year. The weather was not too bad a bit cooler than last year but still felt good in the Miami Sun. The weekend kick started with a big friday night with Rosabel and a performance by Erika Jayne. Then everyone woke up the next day to the most beautiful scenery at the Pool party with the hottest djs on the planet… the Perry Twins at the Surfcomber Doubletree.
Sunday was the beach party and then the final party which had so much controversy. This year we saw a few bitter exchanges between The Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Peter Rauhofer. The site StopPeter.com and many flyers were given out along the streets in front of Mansion to stop the Winter party attendees to not pay for Peter Rauhofer’s show. While I do agree with the Task force about someone going head up against a charity or not-for-profit organization that gives back to the gay community they were not even in the same city. If they were both in Miami beach then I think Peter Rauhofer should just give up forever and say goodbye but seriously a party in Downtown Miami is not exactly walking distance from my hotel in South Beach. Sometimes competition is a good thing - I mean Twist did not exactly close its doors for the Winter Party or anything. Thank God because Twist was a blast Sunday night. Peter kind of sucked!! It is a shame Peter did not give back any money to gay organizations but it shows he has no heart at all. His event was not as busy as last year and I think Peter Rauhofer will lose lots of followers because they will see him in a different light after he could not give back at all to the community.
I wanted to bad to go see Tracy Young downtown at Space but just did not get around in time to deal with driving downtown which can take forever when your ready to party. We ended up at Mansion to see Offer Nissam and because it was close to our hotel. Definitely not to support Rauhofer. Offer Nissam Canceled on the event and was a no-show. Talk about false advertising! They kept the Offer Nissam wording on the Mansion signage all night long and did not bother to take it down. They should have offered a discount on the $60 cover knowing Offer Nissam would not be attending. I left shortly after finding this out because I could not stand Peter Rauhofer’s music anymore.. went over to Twist nightclub and had a blast with cheaper drinks.
What What! Jeffrey Sanker knows how to impress. I noticed he was on facebook the other day asking who everyone thought would be the best performer to bring to the White Party. I saw many say Lady Gaga, Ke$ha… and lots of requests for Adam Lambert. I even saw some interesting names such as Dolly Parton and La Roux (wow that would be fun as well). The big headliner will be Ke$ha.
August
Deja Vu? Yeah really. There are major changes again for Gay Days slated for June 