Gay Day at Discovery Kingdom now called JUNGLE, Sat, Nov 13, 2010

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After last year's well intentioned but not hugely attended revamp of Gay Day ("Out In The Park") at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, I was wondering what might be in store for this year. Still not having heard anything, I thought they might have given up and left the big "gay day" parties to the other theme parks...

However, I was wrong. Gay Day at Discovery Kingdom is back, but revamped yet again. I guess you can't blame them for trying!

So what's in store for this year? It looks like they're learning from the past, and this year's Gay Day at Discovery Kingdom is know known as J.U.N.G.L.E. (Jointly Unified in a Nighttime Gay/Lesbian Event):

[From the official website's event page]
The park will be open to the general public from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Ticket holders to JUNGLE can enjoy the festivities until park close at 11 p.m.

Tickets will go on sale starting in September at an early online price. Your purchased ticket to JUNGLE will also be valid during the park's public operating hours and a special wristband will provide access to the exclusive JUNGLE event.

Season Pass holders can enjoy a special Season Pass event wristband price and enjoy JUNGLE all night long. A portion of the ticket proceeds will be donated to our community partners.

Performances by:

• Chris Salvatore (chris-salvatore.com)
• Pollo Del Mar (Twitter.com/TheGlamazonPDM)
• Jessica and Hunter (jessicaandhunter.com)
• DJ Perry Twins (perrytwinsmusic.com)

Special appearances by:
House of Glitter, Cheer SF, Tita Aida, Rice Rockettes, DieNASTY, and CollaVoce.

Sponsored by:
Vitamin Water, Pink Banana Media, LOGO TV, Grindr, and Andre Harris Designs.

Community Partners:
Solano Pride, API Wellness, and Cheer SF.

They've also started a Facebook Page for the event with more info and ongoing updates. I hope the promoters give me free tickets to give away again! If anyone has connections, please let them know I'd love to hold a contest and promote the event.

Whatdya think? Are this year's changes enough to get you to go?

Gay/Lesbian Day at Great America today, May 28, 5p-2a

This almost slipped under my radar. Today, Friday, May 28, 2010 (from 5p-2a) is Gayday at Great America in Santa Clara. In addition to people watching and roller-coastering with friends in the queer community all night, they have a pretty extensive lineup of entertainment:

• Kelis
• DJ Moto Blanco
• Drag stars
• Club Papi Latin Stage
• Heklina/Trannyshack
• Cheer SF

...and more! Tickets are $60. Anyone going to Santa Clara? I should've taken the day off of work!

Ticket giveaway for Gay day at Discovery Kingdom Vallejo

I'm out at the Russian River for a few days, vacationing, so I won't be posting too much (unless there's amazing breaking news). However...

I did want to let you all know that, courtesy of LOGO Networks/MTV, I'll have two tickets to give away to readers of The Fruit for the upcoming Gay Day at Discovery Kingdom (formerly Marine World) on September 11th.

For those who didn't catch the announcement the first time, here's some more details on this year's Gay Day, which looks to be MUCH BIGGER than the first one, last year.

This year: LMFAO, Paradiso Girls, DJ's, exclusive night.
When: Friday, September 11th, 5-11p, just for the gays.

Stay tuned for details on the free tickets from The Valley's Other Fruit.

Gay Day returns to Discovery Kingdom Vallejo, Sep 11; Six Flags continues to call it "Out in the Park"

[Update, August 18, 2010: Looking for 2010's Gay Day at Discovery Kingdom? It has changed its name to "JUNGLE".

Update, Sep 1, 2009: Win free tickets to gay day from The Valley's Other Fruit!]

Thanks to a tip from Rick M, I finally got wind that the "Out in the Park" (or Gay Day) is returning to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom again.

It seems this time around Six Flags Vallejo's Park will be part of a tour of "Out in the Parks" running from August 16 - September 25th and stopping in Louisville, Montreal, Baltimore, New Jersey, Los Angeles and San Francisco--er, Vallejo:

Friday, September 11, 5-11p
Out In The Kingdom San Francisco
(In conjunction w/ LOGO)
at Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo

DJ: The Perry Twins
Musical Guest: LMFAO and The Paradiso Girls
Hosted by: Mark Nelson, Gage Kristofer, Edgar Vidal, Gavin Grozier, Val G and André Shannon

Click here to purchase tickets, get group ticket rates and find out about the fabulous entertainers and DJs at each park. A portion of the proceeds for Out in the Parks 2009 benefits the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund.

Hopefully they'll take into account my suggestions from last year, including publicizing the event much better!

Did you go last year? Are you going this time?

In similar news, Gay Days Anaheim (meaning Disneyland, of course!) is also coming up, October 2-4, 2009.

Gay Day Great America, May 22; Gay Day season kicks off

It's been all over the radio, but in case you've missed it I thought I'd post. Gay Day "season" is kicking off with Great America (in Santa Clara) being the first amusement park to have a Gay Day for all of us queer folk (yes, in spite of the catchy name, they include the whole LGBT community and our friends, families and allies).

Gay Day Great America is on the evening of Friday, May 22 from 5p-2am (so maybe not so "family friendly" afterall...).

Miley Cyrus boots gays from Disneyland this weekend

GettyImages

As we mentioned a while back, this coming weekend is "Gaydays" at Disneyland in Anaheim. I've been planning and excited for months! My partner and I are heading down this Thursday, and while I've been to Disneyland many times in the past (almost yearly), my boyfriend hasn't been for almost 10 years and neither of us has gone for gaydays.

And then I heard this rumor on the blogosphere today, as only Perez could spread it:

"Ewww what a betch! In a move that would shock the spoiled brats on MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen, little Slutty Cyrus is kicking the gays out of Disneyland for her birthday party! On what is known as the annual Gay Day celebration at Disneyland, Miley has decided to commandeer the park for her sweet 16th birthday bash, charging screaming tweenies $250 a pop to attend. Closing early to accommodate the Disney slut, members of the LGBT community will be forced to celebrate elsewhere. Lame!" [PerezHilton]

So, before I totally lost it I decided to do what I always do when I get a nasty email forward-- check the facts on the internets.

Thankfully, it's not completely true.

According to the official-nonofficial gaydays website, Miley's only buying out Disney's early park closure on Sunday evening. That's when all of us are supposed to be at California Adventure, which because of her fiesta, will be open later than usual. Good. So our gay-cation isn't ruined.

"NOTE: Yes, Miley Cyrus is having her birthday at Disneyland on Sunday, October 5 and Disneyland will be closing at 5pm that day. That's our scheduled day at Disney's California Adventure so we don't forsee any changes to Gay Days Anaheim. Although we would love her to come sing for us!" [GaydaysAnaheim]

Don't forget to wear your red shirts! Are you going? Let us know! Let's meet up!

Good times (and hopes for more) for gays in the North Bay

In order to maintain any credibility, I work to write as fair of opinion as possible--whether positive or not--about local gay happenings. I can't say something's amazing if it isn't, otherwise my "reviews" won't hold up. However, I don't want to come across as overly negative, and I'm afraid that my first post on Discovery Kingdom's Out in the Park sounded that way.

I'm pretty much of the opinion--especially in Napa and the North Bay, where not too much good gay stuff is happening--that most events welcoming the gays are good for the community. Something is much better than nothing.

The end of the story yesterday is that I had a great time. Yes, I was disappointed that more people didn't' show up to take advantage of yesterday's celebration, but my write-up of the post really was a hope (and suggestions) for even better in the year's ahead.

I give my props again to the organizers and hope that everyone who went yesterday had a great time and will spread the word so that more good stuff can happen for the LGBT community and our allies in Napa and nearby.

Any pictures of the events? Share them with us!

Out on the scene: Thoughts on Discovery Kingdom's first "gay day" & R Bar After Party

[Update: I wrote a follow up to my first write-up of Discovery Kingdom's Out in the Park]

I give props to Discovery Kingdom for hosting an LGBT day--and an officially sponsored one at that (Disney might have a kick-ass gay day, but it's still not official). There was dance music and Energy 92.7 DJs and a special picnic area...I got pictures with Fernando and Greg!...and so I had a lot of fun (I even bought my first season pass!) but Discovery Kingdom's "gay day" (okay, so they actually called it "Out in the Park") did leave some room for improvement in the years ahead. My thoughts on what could make it better are here. Totally agree? Loved it? Hated it? Make sure and share your experience in the comments.

• More gays. Discovery Kingdom was open to the full public yesterday and gay-day just added to the number of visitors. Lucky for us the lines didn't get too long... Unfortunately, it was because all of the crowds were pretty low yesterday. I'm not sure if people didn't know it was Out in the Park or if they chose not to go. Either way, they should work on the marketing. Searches and visits to this blog tripled in the week before the event, mainly because Discovery Kingdom's info page was pretty hidden (were they playing it safe?) and so Google listed this blog as one of the top results on what was happening. Better marketing = more gays = better gay day.
  
  
• Colored t-shirts. In spite of my fairly good gaydar, I'm lazy when it comes to identifying the gays. On top of that, attendance numbers were low all over the park. That would have been less of an issue for Out in the Park if people were actually "Out". Unlike Disneyland's gay day were everyone where's red--so you can see who's in the club--there was no official gay uniform yesterday. Sure, I could play off stereotypes and just guess which were the gays, but then that would be just like any other day! If there were an official shirt you could buy or if everyone had to wear a teal shirt or something (Disneyland goes red) it would be much easier.
  
  
• All-day gathering spot. They had two "official" Out in the Park gathering spots. One was an Energy 92.7 DJ spinning right underneath Vertical Velocity, who played from 2 - 5. Except that he packed up before 5 and people didn't really gather near him except when they were getting in line for Vertical Velocity. The other area--a large picnic area on the far side of the park--was nice and right on the water ski show waterfront. But, it sort of felt like we were being quarantined and also was only at the end of the day (5-7p). They should have had an all day spot (bonus points if it was more centralized) and sold Out in the Park merchandise there or just had something worthwhile going all day.
  
  
• Headliner concert or special event. In fact, while we're at it, they should have had a concert or some big reason to go to the gathering spot. They did have Energy 92.7's DJs spinning some good dance music and that was fun, but only a hundred or so people gathered in the queer picnic area and the area was huge, so it didn't really look like a lot of people. If there was a "main event", maybe more would have come? This was the first year for Out in the Park, so I'll cut them some slack. Remember, I'm just talking about ways they could improve. I know this wasn't SF Pride, but even if they did something to get the numbers that were at the latin stage at Pride, then people would be talking about Discovery Kingdom and then we'd see some big numbers.
  
  
• Discount. I also should have done my homework to have figured out before hand if I should have brought a coke can (I should have) or a McDonald's coupon to not have to pay the $46 it cost to get my one day ticket. But it would have been so much easier if I could've just mentioned gay-day to get in for $20 or something! Gays aren't cheap but the economy's down and we--like all people--like a little bang for our buck. Also, the gay day events were only from 2p - 7p, so I feel like I got a really short day for spending that much money. They did convince me to turn my day ticket into a season pass that will last me through 2009, but in the end it ended up costing me $65. Another smart move would have been to sell the food in the picnic area for cheaper than the regular park food. I was hungry, but $7 for a slice of pizza? I'll wait to check out the new Sonic's drive-in on the way home.
  

The only thing that really saved the day was the R Bar after party, which was mostly good times for all (well, one beautiful lesbian in the bar was wishing that more ladies showed up, but she had fun with us boys). The upstairs was packed full, there were some brief numbers by a local drag queen but not a full drawn-out show, two hot women belly dancing, and the DJ did a pretty good job keeping people on the dance floor most of the night. Way to represent the North Bay, R Bar!

Did you go to Discovery Kingdom's Out in the Park or the after party at R Bar? What did you think?

More on gayday at Discovery Kingdom

[Update: read our post-gay day write up of Discovery Kingdom's Out in the Park!]

Energy 92.7 finally updated their info page about "Out in the Park" at Discovery Kingdom (formerly Marine World) in Vallejo:

Join Energy 92.7 for the first annual 'Out in the Park' on Saturday, September 20th at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is THE theme park of the North Bay, and Energy 92.7 has teamed up with Six Flags for a day of LGBT pride in the park, and we want you to enjoy all the fun!

If you were'nt lucky enough to win tickets onto the Big Gay Bus (provided by Evans Transportation), then Six Flags and Energy 92.7 want to give you the chance to get discounted tickets for this special event. Click here to purchase tickets for 'Out in the Park' for just $25.99 using the promo code ENERGY. $1 from each ticket will be donated to Project Open Hand.

Energy 92.7 will have our own special area called The Grove in the park from 5-7pm. DJ Righteous Trash will be spinning live, thanks to Six Flags. Energy's own Kid Loose will also be spinning on site in the park. Beer and wine vendors will be on site, as well as Faces nightclub from Sacramento.

The only* gay bar in Vallejo is R Bar, and they are hosting the official afterparty to 'Out in the Park'. Check them out while you're in Vallejo!

Also be sure to find Greg & Fernando and all their hilarious antics in the park!

If you don't want to drive back that night, stay at the local Marriott Hotel, as they are offering a $99/night special exclusively for 'Out in the Park'!

*Obviously this is a promo: sucks that they didn't mention Townhouse (so it's not a gays-only bar, but they're very gay friendly, and definitely deserve support as well). If you do head into town for the after party check out both R Bar and Townhouse for good people.

Out in the Park: Gayday at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo

Breaking news from Energy 92.7 FM:

Save the date!!! Saturday, September 20th is Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo's 1st Annual "Out In The Park". Keep checking here for more info on how Energy 92.7 will hook you up with discounted tickets and more.

[Update, 2008: more info on Out in the Park has come in.]

[Update, 2009: Out in the Park is coming for a 2nd year, Friday night, September 11, 2009!]

Anyone gonna go?

Ever heard of a queer mouse?

Dang-it! Of course, I'm always missing important anniversaries (just don't get my boyfriend started):

May 25, 1978 - The first "Gay Day" at Disneyland is held. More than 15,000 people attend and it's the largest private party ever held at Disneyland.

Anyone planning on attending this year? I know my bf and I are... Gay Days in Anaheim are going to be held October 3-5, 2008. They are expecting 30,000 LGBT peeps at the Magic Kingdom's celebration (which, incidentally, isn't actually hosted by Disney...it's just kind of allowed).

I heard you're supposed to wear a red-shirt, which solves a problem I have been complaining about since the early days of the blog. :)

Any other secrets we should know about Gay Day at Disneyland?