BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF PINES PARTY.
As my contribution to Pines Party, I was tasked to conduct a comprehensive interview of the Pines Party committee about what it takes to produce this massive event annually. The following story is edited from ten interviews and is an extremely abridged version that appears in the printed Pines Party Community Journal. Stay tuned for the full story in the coming weeks as I give the committee some time to recover from producing the best event of the year.
Pines Party is an event that has no equal. It is the culmination of a year’s worth of work by an entire committee of people and a crew of volunteers who give their time so we may all enjoy the fruits of their labor and raise funds to benefit organizations in the Pines and throughout New York City. The work by the committee far exceeds your estimates of what it takes to create this miracle of a party every year. Peer past the curtain for only a moment for this behind-the-scenes interview of what it takes to produce the one-and-only Pines Party.
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DXD: What does the planning process look like for the committee?
Allan Baum: It really is a year-round job. I used to be an investment banker, and I tell people that I probably spend more hours working on this event than I ever spent in investment banking. I did a quick calculation, and it's certainly more than 2,000 hours a year. In terms of timeline, in October/November, we get busy with planning and putting together our sponsor deck. In December/January, we are figuring out the DJ line-up, which is always very stressful and difficult to get everyone on the same page. Sponsor outreach takes place all year. We have monthly committee meetings that go bi-weekly at some point and then weekly when we get close to the event. For me, I have to keep everyone motivated, interested, and involved throughout the entire process.
Frank Liberto: Work on the Community Journal begins in March and continues until printing in July before being delivered to houses in the Pines and Cherry Grove the Friday of Pines Party weekend. Planning accelerates in April when I allocate responsibilities, find some new voices that we can add to the journal, plan the editorial and graphics, and determine the overall creative direction. I have a very talented team working with me, including Stephen Moss, who is a professor of graphic design. Stephen is responsible for design of the editorial pages once the editorial work has been completed. Another team member, Marc Christensen, assists with the overall creative direction, including cover design. Last but not least is our journal graphic designer, Scott Mahia, who has worked closely with me in developing the journal since 2016. Scott's role has been critical in overseeing the mechanics and coordination of the entire book, as well as custom ad design. In addition to our talented editorial and design team, I work very closely with Karen McCutcheon, our Community Manager, on a major ad sales effort.
DXD: What does it mean for you to be able to produce events like this for your Pines community?
Nick Ammaturo: It all started for Marc, Rich, and me three to four years ago. We were stopped on the boardwalk by our lovely neighbors, John and Randy. They were producing the VIP Party at Ed and Crayton's house. At that point, I had never been to Pines Party myself. And they were like, “Hey, you guys know how to do things. We're going to just grab you and throw you into it. And we need hands.”
I don't think they knew that they were bringing us in, but they knew that we could show up. We spent six or eight hours that first day helping to get that event set up. If you give us a task, we can really take it and run with it. It was great to see how Randy and John have been doing this for years, and there was a method to it all. I was still new to the island, and all of a sudden, things show up, someone has a staple gun, someone has a bolt of fabric and a box, and I realized that these gentlemen have been doing this for so many years. They had even built the storage for all these things, because over time when you're out here, you learn that you need to make space for these tools to be able to service whatever the Island may need. It was my first experience seeing that on the Island. And yes, it is consuming and it is exhausting, and we still wanted to do more of it. It was then we knew for the next year that we would be even more heavily involved.
Raf Kuhn: Fire Island gives us the opportunity to be creative, where we have a canvas to do what we want and the budget to program to our heart’s desire. With other weekend events like the Pool Party and the Closing Party, we can produce more focused events to bring in talent like Rimarkable and Monki, and give the women of house music this opportunity and expose the community to those they may not normally hear at the Beach Party. It’s great to be able to bring Tedd Patterson, who has been a Pines community member, in to do the Closing Party this year. It is the balance of being community-minded, giving opportunities, and the production side being open to new things. We want to encourage self-expression and engaging experiences, which is what we do with UltraMaroon in the city and we get to bring that to our community here for such an important weekend.
DXD: In terms of the creative, how does that all come together, especially as we consider this year’s theme of Toon Island?
Guy Smith: That's really a small group. Robert Montenegro, is the planner, the site designer and the set designer. He also designs the décor and now does it in conjunction with Adam “Papa Bear” Klesh, who is our production manager and also one of the creatives. The three of us are in conversation about that all the time. We also have a lot of other creative people working in our core group, like Raf and his boyfriend, Taylor Sams. As far as the theme, this was the first time that I really let go of the whole theme selection. Robert and I have been coming up with the themes for the past eight years. So this year, we said let's put it out there and see what our group can bring to life. When we finally landed on Toon Island, it really resonated with me.
I grew up in the Mid-South in an environment where there was no representation of anything gay, trans, or non-toxic masculine. There was just a right way to be and a wrong way to be. When I turned on Sunday morning cartoons though, there was Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny was this extremely sassy, very non-binary character who was constantly being preyed upon by these very masculine and stupid types like Elmer Fudd or a mad scientist, but it was always somebody who was very narrow-minded. He always outsmarted them, he always made it into a joke, and usually, somewhere in that cartoon, he would be wearing drag. He would be gleefully impersonating an opera singer, a masseuse, a hairstylist, or any one of these very stereotypically gay things, but doing it in this really stylish, clever way. So that was essentially the only positive role model I had as a little kid of something that resonated with me and looked like me.
DXD: A great party is one where revelers usually don’t really know what all it takes to create the magic, but what is one thing you wish attendees knew as they prepare to enter Pines Party?
Randy Wilson: It would be good for people to know that it really does take a dedicated village, as we couldn't accomplish all that needs to be done to produce each of the Pines Party events without the dedicated volunteers and committee members. There are thousands of variables and details to plan and make happen. For over two decades, we have been building upon all of the early Pines Party events to get to where we are today. Through thick and thin, through storms of financial crisis, our committees, volunteers, and villagers work hard every year to ensure the continued growing success of the Pines Party and all of the weekend events.
I would like to personally thank my partner, John Wood, who has worked on the Pines Party committee for over 23 years, helping to create and develop many of the events. From the early Fever after parties and VIP parties, he has done it all; building dance floors, moving port-a-sans, building props, creating decorations, draping fabric, arranging flowers, and more. John will finesse and fine-tune an event until it is perfect and beautiful for everyone to enjoy – right down to the last design detail.
One more thing for people I would want people to better understand is what their donations do for organizations and people. We are happy and proud to hear of all the great work the Stonewall Community Foundation and each of the beneficiaries can accomplish from the donations that are raised from the Pines Party weekend.
Richard Margolius: Most of the party-goers outside of the closer community really don't understand that we start this process in September and it isn't put together only three months in advance. Every single detail is meticulously thought out, and there are so many hands that go into building out every party. We staff close to 400 volunteers a season who are donating their time, and we couldn't do it without them. As much as the party couldn't come together without the committee, it couldn't be put together without all the volunteers who build up the beach, break down the beach, and everything in between.
Marc Christensen: We have friends who say that Pines Party is so much fun, but they don't do their homework or know it's such an important community event. You really have to check your ego at the door because this is a very safe space. As you walk in the door, we want you to remember that this is meant to be fun, but it also needs to be a safe space for everyone, not just you. Whether that's in the way you speak to someone, interact on the dance floor, whatever it is, it all needs to come from a good place.
Jeff Staadt: We're on an island, and to make this party happen, they build an entire city with a ton of logistics: getting electricity out there, getting all the beverages out there, building a dance floor on the beach, etc. As someone who did this for a living, working on concerts and on tour, I must say this is all incredibly complicated. Of all the productions that I have seen, this is unique and quite amazing. It’s a miracle that we're able to pull off this party, to tell you the truth. It takes a lot of time, hard work from the production crew, and a lot of volunteer effort. We love seeing the reactions as people arrive and seeing the creativity of the people in their costumes. Especially in the past few years, the party has had a real sense of camaraderie; a sense that we are all in this together and one big tribe here. Of course, you have your different little factions, but we're all part of the same larger group. I think that I always enjoy seeing and feeling that togetherness. Finally, I want people to know that we do this for everyone and we do it because we love this island and our unique community. I don't think there's a single person on this committee that doesn't do this because they love the Pines so dearly.
DXD: As Pines Party concludes each year, when does the process actually end for the committee?
John Wood: Each year, my partner Randy and I work toward creating a special experience for the guests attending the VIP event and our sponsor tent at the Beach Party. Having worked on this event and many of the others from the beginning in 1999, we have a small mountain of props, furniture, electrics, and other assorted materials from Pines Party past, and each year we look to create something new. An environment that captures the theme is visually exciting and provides a special shared memory. I’d like to add that we couldn’t possibly do what we do without the support of a core group of friends and volunteers, many of whom return to help create the magic year after year.
As for when our work ends, let’s remember that all of those sparkly bits, tents, and props have to be removed, packed, and carefully tucked away; and all the venues must be left as good or better than we found them. Finally, after several weeks, we'll meet for a wrap-up to go over all of the details: all the things that worked, all the things that didn’t, how we might improve the experience for the next time round, and perhaps even toss out a few possible fun theme ideas for the following year.
Allan Baum: The week after Pines Party, we get a thank you letter out to everyone, continue to promote the auction, and address a lot of follow-up to tie up all the loose ends. In August, we get to relax a little bit, but there's definitely a lot of post-party work that gets done as we figure out the finances so that I can give the [Pines Foundation] Board an idea of where we're coming out, with final numbers being reported in September. The team then usually gets back together in late August or early September for a meeting to discuss what worked well and what didn't as we prepare for the next edition of Pines Party.
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On behalf of all Pines Party attendees, thank you to the committee for all you do. A special thank you on my part to Frank Liberto on having me part of the journal team to produce this story and another commemorating the GMHC Morning Party, as well as Raf for supporting my writing in nightlife. This was an exceptional moment personally as well because the journal holds my first printed works under the name DavidXDaisy. I have written for many queer and trade publications across the country as a ghostwriter for others well as the magazine I produce professionally in my daylife, but this is a first for my nightlife works since I first launched DaisyDoesIt back in January 2019. In the same month, I am now also published with Fag Rag Mag: NYC, another honor as well. It’s all a dream come true that keeps happening with every word you read. Thank you!
Xx,
