The Very Best Of NYC Special Events

8th Annual Miss Lez Pageant, Hamptons Tea Dance, NY Liberty Viewing Parties

-SPECIAL EVENTS-

June 25, the Commercial Closet hosts its 4th Annual Images in Advertising Awards at New World Stages. Join host Frank DeCaro and 300 advertising, marketing and media executives in  recognizing the outstanding mainstream and LGBT-targeted TV, print and online advertisements from 2007, honoring the advertisers and ad agencies that created them. Commercial Closet Association advocates for advertising that respects diversity, specifically gender identity/expression and sexual orientation, for success in business and a safer LGBT society.

Murray Hill hosts the 8th Annual Miss LEZ Pageant, July 12 at The Zipper Factory. The Miss LEZ Pageant is a wildly provocative, jaw-dropping alternative beauty pageant for queer women in NYC that blows the lid off  “gender representation.” The five contestants representing the different “scenes” in the community are Miss Snapshot, Miss I Heart Brooklyn Girls, Miss Choice Cunts, Miss Victoria and Miss Wildcard. The contestants will reinterpret classic pageant categories at will, and the winner is decided by a panel of judges from New York nightlife, such as Chef Josie, Linda Simpson, Grace Moon, Liz Dahmen and Julie Goldman.

We’re sure you’ll catch as many home games as possible between now and the end of the New York Liberty’s 2008 season in September. But if you’re such a Liberty fan that you can’t miss a minute, NYC’s very own WNBA team and GO Magazine and have paired up to bring you action-packed New York Liberty Away Game Viewing Parties throughout the summer at some of your favorite lesbian bars around the city. When your favorite female hoop stars head out of town, gather with fellow Liberty fans at these exclusive events that feature raffles and giveaways, drink specials and more.

July 12 at the Hamptons’ Diamond Ranch, join the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) and over 1,200 supporters and friends for the annual Hamptons Tea Dance in an afternoon of dancing, cocktails and music by DJ Lady Bunny. Help ESPA win the fight for equal rights for LGBT New Yorkers and our families.

No New York City summer is complete without Macy’s’ and the New York Pops’ annual 4th of July Fireworks celebration. Four barges stationed between 23rd and 42nd Streets in the East River set off 20,000 aerial shells and special effects, dazzling onlookers from the FDR Drive, Jersey City and the Seaport and wowing a zillion television viewers. The New York Fire Department also gets in on the act with fire boats shooting red, clear and blue water 300 feet over the river.

June 22 at the Roseland Ballroom, Broadway’s hottest night returns in Broadway Bares 18: Wonderland. Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS and presented by the M·A·C AIDS Fund, this year’s event will have over 200 of Broadway’s hottest bodies traveling “through the looking glass” to bring some of Wonderland’s classic characters to life.

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade once again celebrates the sand, the sea, the salt air, the beginning of summer and the history and mythology of Coney Island, June 21 on the beach and boardwalk. Participants dress in hand-made costumes as mermaids, Neptunes, various sea creatures and more. The parade is followed by a ball where costumed participants and spectators gather for live music and raffles and watch burlesque and sideshow acts performed by some of NYC’s hottest downtown performance stars.

July 4, join the LGBT Center at the beautiful bay-front home of Josh McKinney and Ken Zarrilli (located in the east end of the Pines at 531 Sail Walk), to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the Bay Dance annual Fire Island dance party, and the 25th anniversary of the Center! Stay tuned for more info on this fabulous annual celebration to help support The Center’s invaluable work for the community.

The world’s most beautiful traveling entertainment venue, Spiegeltent, returns to New York Aug 6–Nov 2 in the opulent venue Spiegelworld, under the Brooklyn Bridge at Fulton Fish Market. Spiegeltent presents a live entertainment program of bands, actors and eye-popping burlesque acts, including two of the hottest shows in town, Absinthe and Desir. This year, Spiegeltent offers a second theatre complete with the late-night extravaganza, Gazillionaire’s Late Nite Lounge, and an incredible lineup of live music performances from around the world like you’ve never seen them before.


What Do You Think?