Planning for Pinkfest 2010!

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This posting is from: annie
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Welcome to those who are planning on Pinkfest 2010!

In particular, welcome to those who are new or who just
recently joined the list. We picked up quite a few list
joins from DLV and from various other sources recently.
If there are any questions or concerns, please let us know.

Pinkfest dates are Thursday, October 21 thru Sunday, October
24, 2010. These dates may be considered final and in stone. :)
. . . . .

"Vacation, not a convention."

For those who are new, Pinkfest is not a convention or a
conference, but a sequence of autonomous activities which
are of interest to our attendees. We aren't centered around
a hotel and there's no registration fee or common pool of
funds. For the most part, activities are pay as you go.

Pinkfest has sometimes been considered to be a spinoff of
Diva Las Vegas, and it has some similarities, but it is much
smaller and has far less formality. Yes, if you attended DLV,
you're bound to see familiar faces at Pinkfest.

At Pinkfest there's no registration or activity sign-up and
such. So far, there's been no need for "BDR" regulations for
Pinkfest, and as long as we don't have any problems, it will
stay that way.

You "register" for Pinkfest by simply saying that you will
be attending to the list here, and answer the call for RSVPs
as appropriate. If you decide at the last minute that you
want to drop in and join us, that's fine too.

Right now, our greatest need is feedback from YOU on what
you would like to do for Pinkfest and if you have any special
ideas of things you think the Pinkfest gang would like to do.
Just reply to this mailing with your thoughts, feelings, and
ideas.
. . . . .

Activities!

As far as the format of Pinkfest, it's a sequence of various
activities, very few of which will occur in the same place.
Most of them will be convenient for those driving and those
using public transit.

Ginger will be acting as our "Social Director", and she can
add details as well as present the tentative schedule. I'll
hit the high spots here in this mailing.

Our schedule is under preliminary development now, and nothing
is in stone. We need feedback in order to start putting the
various activities into timeslots and such.

We're planning on thing happening throughout the timespan of
Thursday noon (October 21) through Sunday evening (October 24)
with a good chance of some kind of a Pre-Pinkfest thing on the
evening of Wednesday, October 20, possibly visiting the Island
Girls for their third-week social.

In general, we're planning a good mix of mainstream and alternative
venue activities. Even if you're new to general public exposure,
all of our activities will be in places which are considered to
be TG-friendly.

A few items which we're planning on having on the schedule for
Pinkfest 2010 include:

* Daily Lunch With Ginger, various venues, all mainstream
but known to be TG-friendly.

* Dinner theater, a "Roaring 20s Mobster comedy" theme.

* TransCinema at the GLBT Center, followed by Quality Social
Time in nearby clubs.

* Dining at some of our favorites such as Chicago Chop House,
Winberies, Ann Sathers, plus some new (to Pinkfest) selections.

* Tour of the Hyde Park area.

* Two sponsored activities, by Janna's Place and Rachel's Wig
Salon.

* Quality Social Time at such places at the Velvet Rope
Lounge and Grape Street Piano Bar.

Please give us feedback regarding which of these appeal to you
and, of course, other suggestions.
. . . . .

Hotels

As far as hotels for Pinkfest, we have no official hotel, but
there are several we can suggest. Some of those used by our
Pinkfest attendees appear on our list at:

http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/pinkven/

As of now, no Pinkfest activities are planned within any of
these hotels, but several will be within walking distance of
the suggested hotels in the River North area.

If you have any questions or concerns about hotels, ask and
I'm sure you'll get some answers. :)

My strong suggestion: Book early, even if the rates appear
to be a bit high, and check rates often for a better rate.
I've seen it work both ways. I've seen rates skyrocket in the
weeks just before Pinkfest, and I've also seen them drop to
very low prices!

You basically have two choices WRT hotels for Pinkfest, those
being:

1. Downtown and River North hotels.

2. Suburban motor hotels or motels.

The advantage to Downtown and River North hotels is, as they
say, "location location location", as they are within a very
easy walk to a number of our activity locations.

The disadvantage is that River North hotels are often high
in price. You can get decent comfortable and clean rooms in
the River North area for less than $150 per night if you look
around, but these will typically be older hotels with smaller
rooms. There are also a few of the very bottom-dollar places
which we've been leery of or warned about (like from my in-house
TAs at work) to stay away from.

Another disadvantage of the Downtown and River North hotels
is that seldom is parking included at no charge. (Some
exceptions, see below.) If you will have a vehicle, these
will often not be your best choice.

The hotels and motels in the 'burbs offer much lower rates
plus free parking. One in particular (see below) has been
ephemerally popular with our people. Some of our people
who stay in these will drive in, others will drive to a
park-n-ride lot, and a few are within walking distance
of the subway/El.

Two hotels in the River North area offer free parking to
guests. One is the Best Western River North. I've stayed
there and it is clean and decent, but older. The Howard
Johnson's on LaSalle also has free parking. I've never
stayed there, but I've heard good and bad things about
it.

The Red Roof Inn at Ontario and St. Clair tends to be very
popular with Pinkfesters. It's not the Ritz by any means,
it's older with smaller rooms, but it's clean and very
reasonable for the area.

The Days Inn on Higgins Road, west of O'Hare, has been
popular with our group in the past, mainly due to the
proximity of Hunters Dance Club next door. The are currently
no definite or even tentative plans for Hunters on this
year's Pinkfest schedule, so far, that is.

The Holiday Inn (nee' Ramada Inn) at Cumberland and I-90 is
somewhat of a compromise between cost and convenience. This
is sometimes known as the "OJ Hotel" (google it if you want)
and it has free parking and is a fairly easy walk to the El.
I've stayed in this a number of times, both for business and
for pleasure, including Pinkfest.
. . . . .

Dress for Pinkfest

We don't have a dress code. Dress suggestions for the various
activities will appear on the final schedule. In general,
casual, boymode or girlmode, is suggested for most daytime
things, and it's ok to dress up a bit (or quite a bit) for
most of the evening activities. About the only thing we don't
want to see are costumes, slutty/fetish, and the like. Ask if
you have questions or concerns about dress.
. . . . .

That's about it for now, please let us know of any questions,
concerns, or suggestions. :)

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(This posting was entered by annie, an external user of MyDLV.)