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The 2014 Dinah Shore weekend line up was one of the best in recent years. From the event that has previously brought guests Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha and Gaga, there is always a high expectation on the standard that has been set.
And this year was no different as old school met new school with classic performances from the
likes of Evelyn Champagne King kicking off the live performances at the Hilton Pool Party on Friday 4 April. Playing crowd pumping classics and showing the younger guests how it can still be done - get down girl - ECK gave us a smooth, soulful hip grinding start to the partying, and played right to the crowd.
Friday night's iconic White Party was host to a fast-paced set from rapper Iggy Azalea who brought sexy dancing to a new level. Alongside an all-female dance cast, Azalea hyped up the beat to take the crowd into the stratosphere with electrifying control.
In the heat of Saturday afternoon and a maxed-to-capacity pool party, Hunter Valentine moshed up the poolside, turning up the heat in their leathers as they rocked the stage with explosive head banging tunes and one exclusive first play of their newest track.
The headline music act came Saturday night when Tegan and Sara played an arena style concert at the Palm Springs Convention Centre for 2000 lucky guests. It's taken 7 years to bring the Canadian fan favourites to The Dinah, and well worth the wait as they chose the festival for their final tour date. Tegan and Sara wowed fans with an accomplished set of some of their best known songs.
RnB star Eve kept the Black Party going on Saturday night with plenty of urban swag.
Mary Lambert stole the Sunday for many at the Sunday Hilton Pool Party. Following fresh from her Same Love success (with Macklemore and Ryan), Lambert gave a spine-tingling, goosebump inducing set in some 80 degree heat. Moving many to tears, Lambert included a spoken word piece amongst a cover from Teenage Dirtbag and the full version of She Keeps Me Warm. With humour, grace and a clear satisfaction of playing to thousands of beautiful lesbians, this was a stunning way to close the pool party.
By Katie
A mellow and hilarious kick off to The Dinah begins with the Thursday night comedy affair at the Palm Springs Convention Centre. It's not often we get treated to an all-female, nay, all-lesbian quality comic line up.
Hosted by lesbian favourite Suzanne Westenhoefer who struts on the stage warming the crowd up with cat-tales and anecdotes, and gets the lez-vibe going, introducing the three talented comedians for wonderfully extended sets.
Brit Gina Yashere was up first (you may have seen her on all those typically British panel shows) and gave lively oxy-moloxy-tastic observations of the Brit in the USA, "America, F*ck Yeah", the compromises it takes to make it in Hollywood; and all those commercials on the TV- "have you got Restless Leg Syndrome?" All this and a particularly accurate take of how strapping-on really goes. [We have one signed Gina Yashere DVD to give away when we return! Like us on Facebook to be in with a chance ;)]
Erin Foley, the Gluten-Free stand up, former Almost Famous star and sports podcaster funny lady took us to a hilarious look at the mid-30s and all the things we can no longer do - drink wine at 2pm and then stay up late, dance to eletronica, keep up with a girlfriend in their 20s, and the things we should no longer do - drinking so much we take out our contacts twice comes to mind.
Headline Fortune Feimster, Dinah Dodgeball MVP, Groundling Graduate and best known for her stint bringing the gay on the Chelsea Lately talk show, brought the Southern Charm to the stage along with a sexy-pulling stare and an awkward recount of her 21st Birthday event at Hooters - along with all the family. Most spectacular was Fortune's description of a #scissorbomb. I'll leave that one to your imagination.
By Katie
When: 5-7 April
Where: Palm Springs, USA
What: Women's festival and party weekend
Age: Over 21s only (due to US drinking laws)
Website: http://www.thedinah.com
Price: various ticket types and packages to suit every budget
Hot sun and every kind of lesbian
As an unconventional part of our honeymoon road trip we decided to attend Dinah Shore in Palm Springs. Unusual as couples can break up at Dinah Shore due to the fact there are soo many women of all ages ready for a good time and a lively party atmosphere.
We did not break up, we in fact really enjoyed The Dinah Shore 2013 experience and can't wait to tell you about it, and go back next year. In particular, we found there to be a very inclusive atmosphere and a strong feeling of acceptance that women come in all shapes and sizes and from all sorts of backgrounds, very much a come as you are and be proud of who you are event.
We started off our Friday afternoon (the party starts on the Thursday but we were fashionably late arriving on Friday!) at the infamous Pool Party which takes place during the day until 5pm at The Hilton Hotel pool. This was hot, crowded, full of girls in bikinis/swim shorts, drinking mojitos or other Bacardi drinks (drinks were limited to either Budweiser or Bacardi products at most bars with a Mojito running to about $8 (about £5)) and swaying to the hot club remixes from the DJ that had the crowd dancing.
We hadn't known what to expect really other than the perception that it would be filled with young, skinny bikini clad girls. As well as these girls there was a diverse range of every type of lesbian you can imagine, all taking part and enjoying the atmosphere.
For the first time this year, Dinah Shore hosted a mini film festival, where we were treated to brand new and exclusive screenings of new TV series, 'Second Shot' (read more here) and a documentary about what the Dinah Shore event means to different attendees called 'Out in the Desert'.
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| Second Shot Cast |
Friday night takes us to the White Party, which is the flagship night time event at The Dinah, which took place at the Hotel Zosu (yes Dinah takes place across 3 venues on account that there are 30,000 lesbians to host!). The White Party headline act was DJ Havana Brown who truly rocked the dancefloor with outstanding remixes and MCing (our favourite was a club remix of Wonderwall!).
For the energetic, the pool party starts again on Saturday at 9am (we don't think anyone was up that early!) and there was a second pool party at Zosu which hosted a stage for the Girls that Rock event (showcasing a number of up and coming lesbian talent). We tootled along to the celebrity dodgeball event at the Hilton which gave a chance for the celesbians in attendance to prove their competitive spirit. They lost at dodgeball but entertained the crowds well.
Dodgeball isn't the only opportunity to see your favourite celesbians, both of the evening parties have red carpet entries and the opportunity to take lots of photos. Celebrities this year came from The Real L Word, all of the current lesbian web series and of course the acts lined up for the weekend.
A slightly more chilled out atmosphere on Saturday afternoon, in the run up to the Saturday night party which was themed for Monte Carlo. Headlining on Saturday night was Karmin (famous for that platinum selling Broken Hearted). They were great on stage - think a 2013 version of No Doubt; and Dinah Shore has a tendancy to spot up and coming talent (previous acts include Katy Perry and Lady GaGa) so watch this space!
Sadly we had to continue our road trip and leave early (meaning we missed the Sunday night performance and party featuring lesbian favourite, Uh Huh Her).
We had an amazing weekend, and are truly excited for future Dinah Shores. We can't quite believe this festival isn't more talked about in the UK. Tickets for 2014 will go on sale in June, we will publish a hints and tips from our experience closer to this time, and will liaise closely with the organisers to ensure that this massive girl festival (possibly the largest in the world) is promoted in the UK so that more lovely lesbians from London and the wider UK can experience this amazing festival too! Of course the good weather which is pretty much guaranteed in Palm Springs, does make for a very tempting selling point!!!
