In 1991, Mariah Hanson threw her first Dinah party at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California, which was intended for the queer women attending the nearby Dinah Shore Nabisco Classic, a women’s golf tournament founded by singer Dinah Shore in the late 1970s that historically attracted crowds of LGBTQ women. Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the Big Band era but however was reportedly not a lesbian, just a lesbian icon
It’s somewhat amazing that the Dinah party is still alive and well because the first event quickly turned bacchanalian because of the overserving of alcohol, and with the total lack of security many of the women ended up dancing topless on the museum’s roof .
Fast forward and the Dinah, still in the hands of Marilyn Hanson, has become known colloquially as “the biggest lesbian party in the world” by everyone from the Los Angeles Times to Vice. It became so big that, in 2000, the golf tournament dropped the name “Dinah Shore” as a way of distancing itself from the annual gathering held in late March or early April, which throughout the decades was often referred to as “lesbian spring break,” most notably by the New York Times in 2007.
Now in 2022 the five-day event, filled with music, dancing, comedy, DJ battles, and pool parties, now markets itself as “the largest queer/lesbian/nonbinary event in the world” The 2022 Entertainment Line-Up is a diverse and inclusive culture in which we are all encouraged and empowered to be our authentic selves. They have put together a powerful, bold, diverse, and inclusive lineup that showcases emerging queer female artists that are carving out space for themselves & are putting the LGBTQIA+ community front and center in an industry that often leaves them behind. They are the galvanizing queer female voices part of a new generation who celebrate queerness unabashedly and out loud.
Hanson goes out of her way to stress that the most important aspect of the Dinah was the coming together as a community implying it had much loftier ambitions than any gay circuit party. However a few years ago Arwa Mahdawi a lesbian journalist visiting from The Guardian in the UK wrote : No one is here for the DJs, comedians or YouTube stars performing either. They’re here for the girls. Butch, femme, old, young, gold stars, bi, black, white, hardcore, normcore – the Dinah attracts a diverse group. There’s a sense of liberation and a tacit understanding that what happens in Dinah stays in Dinah (unless it ends up on Facebook).
Whatever the actual reason the 20,00O participants will turn up for this 2022 Edition, we are guessing a good time will be had by all, Even if it all now makes poor Miss Shore turn over in her grave.
September 21st -26th THE DINAH 2022
Labels: 20000 attendees, 2022, lesbian, Palm Springs, The Dinah
Great!!!!!!! I love that these parties are continuing.