by Loren Berthelsen, Editor in Chief
We just returned from Palm Springs and the annual Leather Pride weekend produced by the Palm Springs Leather Order of the Desert (PSLOD).
Let me just start by saying that this is consistently one of the best events we attend each year. It's got a great diversity of types of events from flat out cruisy to dance your butt off and the crowd is friendly and ready to party.
Things got under way this year on Thursday night at Hunter's bar for the Meet and Greet and a chance to rub shoulders with both the judges and the contestants. This year there were 7 judges and 4 contestants and emcee duties were handled by Lenny Broberg with his usual mix of professionalism and a dash of leather camp.
Judges were:
- Stephen Blackwell - IML 2003 2nd Runner Up and Mr LA Leather 2003
- Drew Kramer - Mr Palm Springs Leather 2011
- Alex Lindsay - American Leatherman 2009 and Leatherati Co-Founder
- Amy Marie Meek - International Ms Leather 1993
- Anthony Rollar - IML 2011 2nd Runner Up and Mr San Diego Leather 2010
- Utah Rox - International Mr Olympus Leather 2010
- Rik Newton Treadway - Mr Maryland Leather 2009 and Maryland Mr Dummer 1999.
Contestants were:
- Mr. DiGS Leather 2012 - Lenny Lesemen
- Mr. Leather Indulgence 2012 - Michael L. Mitchell
- Mr. Streetbar Leather 2012 - Thomas Oliva
- Mr. Tool Shed Leather 2012 - Todd Peter
So now that we were all meeted and greeted it was time to party a bit and then home to bed to get a good night's rest for the weekend ahead. There are a huge number of gay and kink-friendly hotels in Palm Springs. The best known for the leather set is Chaps Inn although other hotels such as Helios and Camp Palm Springs are definitely good alternatives.
Apés dinner it was a quick kit change and then off to the Parking Lot Party at the Toolshed. This year there were way more vendors than in years past with a couple of my favorites - Off Ramp Leathers (who have recently moved their retail operations to Palm Springs from San Francisco) and Leatherstock.com who make the most amazing leather-scented products. If you weren't shopping then you were probably drinking and cruising the very, very hot crowd.
We unfortunately missed the Cigar Party at Digs on Saturday afternoon but heard great reports on the quality of the cigars and men present. It's really awesome to see all of the other events which are growing up around PS Leather Pride. Several of the resorts threw leather-themed parties - I heard the one at Helios was especially worth making it to.
Early evening found us at the Convention Center for the before contest cocktails and silent auction trolling. The auction committee rounded up some amazing stuff this year, including one of the best collections of artwork I've seen in a long time. And you can count on Leather Pride Chair Dave Murdock to keep us all running on time with the contest getting under way promptly at 7 PM. Okay, it may have been a bit of a "7-ish" but it was damn near on time!
The parade of colors got everything started and then Emcee Lenny Broberg took over and we really got rolling. The parade of clubs came up next, followed by the introduction of current titleholders (good the thing the stage held up!), then on to the Judge's introductions and finally we got to meet the contestants going head to head for the Mr Palm Springs Leather 2012 title.
The contest followed a pretty traditional format - introduction in bar/cruisewear, jockstrap and question, formal leather and speech. Personal interviews were conducted earlier in the day and counted for 100 of the potential 300 points.
Check out this video of the contestant speeches:
Lenny kept a close eye on the clock since none of us wanted to cut in to the start time of the Recon Dark Victory Dance which followed the contest. Just prior to announcing the results, we took a few minutes to listen to a remarkable speech from the outgoing titleholder, Drew Kramer. He talked about all of the things that sets Palm Springs apart from other cities and how things are just different here. I can speak for just about everyone present when I say that the image of flip flops with chaps is now seared in to my brain!
After another break for drinks and final auction bids, it was time to reveal the lineup for 2012:
- 3rd runner up is Mr. DiGS Leather 2012 - Lenny Lesemen
- 2nd runner up is Mr. Leather Indulgence 2012 - Michael L. Mitchell
- 1st runner up is Mr. Streetbar Leather 2012 - Thomas Oliva
- Mr Palm Springs Leather 2012 is Mr. Tool Shed Leather 2012 - Todd Peter
Obligatory photo op followed the sashing and then we we dove in to the dance or headed off to the Toolshed or Barracks. In our case, we did all three!
Sunday was a gorgeous day, unlike the on-again-off-again rain of Saturday, and a perfect day for the Pool Party/BBQ/Soaked T-Shirt Contest at Helios and sponsored by Elbow Grease. Helios is a hot and sexy resort so I'll just say that fun was had by all and leave it at that <eg>.
Sunday afternoons in Palm Springs really means one destination - the Beer Bust at the Barracks Bar. You can imagine that the bust on Leather Pride weekend would be huge, and you would be right. The guys from the Tom of Finland Foundation were on hand with giveaways and some amazing artwork. The vendors were also open for business in the Barracks Annex. We got there early and staked out a great spot at a table by the patio entrance which is the best vantage point to get immersed in all of the action. And there was plenty of action.
The only downer to a perfect end to the weekend was the arrival of the local police department to shut the bar down for over-capacity issues. They did allow the bar to re-open after a short time with a significantly reduced capacity load. Grrrr. The Barracks has had ongoing issues with the local law enforcement over a variety of issues such as porn and capacity and it's sad to see it come up again during one of their busiest days of the year.
PS Leather Pride is a gear-packed and fun event and it needs to go on your calendar for next year, always on the second weekend of November. We'll see you there!
Don't miss the tons of photos of the weekend in the Leatherati Galleries
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