Arts & Entertainment
After Irene, Rehoboth ready to party
The popular Blue Moon bar and restaurant was boarded up last weekend in preparation for Hurricane Irene, which triggered an evacuation of Rehoboth Beach. The Moon, along with the rest of town, is reopened and ready for the busy Labor Day weekend. (Photo by John Bator)
Rehoboth Beach’s summer season unofficially ends around Labor Day and it goes out with a memorable bang this weekend with drag volleyball and the Sundance party.
Begun as a fun game among friends in 1988, this year’s drag volleyball match is expected to attract more than 1,000 beach goers to the 23rd annual contest on Sunday at 1 p.m. The event, almost from the beginning, has been held on Poodle Beach at the south end of the boardwalk.
The event attracted national attention this year when Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford joined several of the players on the beach in a segment shown on NBC’s “Today” show, but as early as 1996 this event was featured in the USA Today as one of the fun things to see at the beach during Labor Day weekend.
Even though the teams play the game in drag, they treat the game seriously. Stan Cole, a Rehoboth Beach resident, notes that the first time he observed the event, “I thought I would see drag queens playing volleyball, but I saw good volleyball players in drag.”
The two teams keep their outfits secret from the public, but do share with each other what they will wear ever since there was a year in which both teams had the same theme. In the past, they have dressed as Hawaiian princesses, a wedding party, flight attendants and Lady Gaga’s multiple personalities, to name a few. In the early years, the players wore women’s bathing suits, but in subsequent years the costumes became more elaborate. During the first 10 years of competition, the costumers were designed by one of the players, Forrest Park, known affectionately as Flo.
They have never had inclement weather hold them back, playing in cold and damp weather, even during a downpour. They canceled the match in 1990 when anti-gay sentiment, including anti-gay beatings at Poodle Beach and signs around town promoting the city as “A family town” forced the organizers to worry about how such an event might fuel further anti-gay sentiment.
Over the years, organizers have been asked to turn the event into a fundraiser, but longtime participant Brent Minor says, “this event is purely fun, and we do not want to get involved in making it too complicated and giving us too many obligations.”
The same year in which drag volleyball began, the Camp Rehoboth community center organized an event called Sundance to honor the 10th anniversary of Camp founders Steve Elkins and Murray Archibald. The first event was a benefit for Whitman-Walker Clinic and Hero, an AIDS care provider in Baltimore, and raised $6,400. Over the years other groups, such as the Sussex County AIDS Committee, have benefitted from funds raised at this event but in recent years, the programs sponsored by Camp have been the primary beneficiary.
Each year since then, Camp has held the two-day event, the first day being an auction with items donated by up to 400 individuals and businesses, and the second a dance. Originally held at the Strand Restaurant on Rehoboth Avenue, it moved to the Convention Center in 1994. “The people at the Convention Center have been incredibly supportive all these years,” Elkins says. Elkins also points out how proud Camp is that this was the first gay-oriented event ever held at the Convention Center.
This year the auction will be held on Saturday from 7-10 p.m., and the dance, with music by Mark Thomas will be held the next day from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Numerous sponsors will be donating food and beverages. Also this weekend, the second annual 5K race to benefit Camp Rehoboth will be held. It was postponed from last weekend due to Hurricane Irene. Registration for the 5K begins at 6 a.m. at Camp Rehoboth on Baltimore Avenue and the race kicks off at 7:30 a.m. Go here for more information.
Other Labor Day weekend events:
Saturday, Sept. 3
Zoom Urban Lesbian Excursions is having its third annual Labor Day Sunset Sail on the American Spirit at the Gangplank Marina (600 Water St., S.W.). The group will gather at the nearby Cantina Marina at 6 p.m. before setting sail at 6:30. The trip is three hours long on the Potomac and includes drinks, food and music. Tickets for the sail cost $55 and can be purchased at phatgirlchic.com/zoom.
The biggest event in Rehoboth is Sundance, a two-night annual benefit for Camp Rehoboth Community Center. Tonight, the doors of the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center open at 7 p.m. with a silent auction and live auction. There will also be a dance Sunday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets are $45 either event or $80 for both and can be purchased online at camprehoboth.com.
Sunday, Sept. 4
Ladies 2000 and City Girl Productions present its Women’s Labor Day Weekend party at the Atlantic Sands Hotel (101 N. Boardwalk) in Rehoboth Beach, Del., tonight at 5 p.m. featuring DJ Steve Singer. Admission is $10.
The Ladies of Lure are celebrating Labor Day tonight with Spin at Club Hippo (1 West Eager St.) in Baltimore from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. with DJ Rosie and the DystRuXion Dancers. A game of flip-cup will run from 7 to 8 p.m. when the club doors open. General admission is $4, $8 to play flip-cup as well.
Monday, Sept. 5
The National Symphony Orchestra celebrates the Legends of Washington Music: John Philip Sousa, “Duke” Ellington, and Chuck Brown, the “Godfather of Go-Go,” tonight as part of its Labor Day Capitol Concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building at 8 p.m. This is a free event.
Olde Towne Gaithersburg has its 73rd annual Labor Day Parade today at 1 p.m. with WTOP traffic reporter Julie Wright as mistress of ceremonies. For more information, visit gaithersburgmd.gov.
Celebrity News
My evening with Madonna
Gay icon headlined the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers and Photo Editor Michael Key will be on assignment in the Netherlands through Aug. 10. They will be covering World Pride in Amsterdam.
AMSTERDAM — Madonna and 6,000 of her closest friends celebrated World Pride at Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall early Sunday morning. I was fortunate enough to be one of them.
Madonna last Wednesday nearly broke the internet when she said on social media in Dutch that “I got somethin’ I wanna talk about,” referring to an opening line in “Danceteria,” one of the tracks on her “Confessions II” album that has received rave reviews since its July 2 release. The track has been on near constant replay on my playlist since I first heard it.
— Madonna (@Madonna) July 28, 2026
MISTR — a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term care that has organized Madonna’s Club Confessions shows in the U.S. and the U.K. — later confirmed the rampant speculation. I woke up on July 30 to an email in my inbox from MISTR and the World Pride Music Festival PR team that said I was on the press list.
Madonna was indeed going to headline the World Pride Music Festival that Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced, and I was going to be there. OMFG!!!!
The gay icon had one more surprise in store.
The Dutch internet on Saturday once again broke over speculation that Kylie Minogue was going to appear alongside Madonna. I was getting ready to leave our hotel in Amsterdam on Saturday night when I saw a video of the two of them together.
“Madonna is now teasing Kylie Minogue on her social media … she may be one of her ‘special guests’ tonight,” I wrote in a text to Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff at 8:46 p.m.
“Have fun! This is turning into the gayest concert ever,” he responded.
I arrived at AFAS Live shortly before 11 p.m. My press contact walked me and two other Dutch journalists into the venue’s cavernous main room known as the Black Box. We made small talk for a few minutes before I started to walk around and listen to Josh Harrison who was on the decks.
Madonna was scheduled to take the stage at 1:30 a.m., but she is known for being late — she is Madonna and she does what she wants. Hayla, a British singer, and Bebe Rexha are among those who performed ahead of Madonna. Thousands of sweaty men — including a group of Australians next to me who were eagerly awaiting Kylie’s anticipated appearance — packed the Black Box and were dancing, anticipating what was to come.
MISTR CEO Tristan Schukraft at one point came on stage and declared Madonna was indeed in the building. The moment for which we were all eagerly waiting finally came shortly before 2:30 a.m.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage.
Stuart Price, who produced her “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album in 2005, manned the decks during Madonna’s set.
She opened it with “I Feel So Free” from “Confessions II.” Madonna then sang “Bring Your Love” and “Danceteria” to which this reporter — and everyone else — sang along.
Madonna then teased a surprise before she began to perform “Love Sensation.” Kylie soon appeared on stage. It was nearly too much for my fellow partygoers from Australia. It was indeed the gayest concert ever!
Madonna and Kylie performed “Love Sensation” together. They then sang “Hung Up” and “Sorry” from “Confessions on a Dance Floor” to round out the set that ended shortly after 3 a.m.
Madonna and I share the same birthday — Aug. 16 — and I would like to think she and Kylie gave me an early birthday present. In all seriousness though, it was an amazing night for me and for everyone else who was fortunate enough to be there.
“On the dance floor I feel so free,” says Madonna in the opening of “I Feel So Free.”
For those few precious hours at AFAS Live I did not think about the Trump-Vance administration and the myriad ways it is destroying the U.S. I did not think about the National Guard troops deployed to D.C. I did not think about the pointless wars that continue to ravage Ukraine and other countries around the world. I simply lost myself on the dance floor and celebrated an icon who has always stood with my community.
Thank you, Madonna.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
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