It’s that time of year again: spring is in the air, and my house is packed to the brim with lovely vagabonds sprawled out on every bit of available floorspace. In Austin, the second week of March heralds the invasion of our fair city by thousands of tech geeks, filmmakers, musicians and everyone in between for a couple weeks of concentrated over-stimulation otherwise known as SXSW. More and more, I find myself saturated with all the excitement and entertainment I require by spending time with my overflowing house full of friends visiting from near and far, and have come to shun the crowds, lines and general chaos that reigns downtown. The truth is, the only part of this whole thing I really care about is Gay Bi Gay Gay, and a large part of that is because it’s its own thing: a strange mushroom that sprang up on the outskirts of the garden – phosphorescently glowing and glimmering with fairy lights. If that sounds slightly hyperbolic, you’ll have to excuse me, but I really do regard this day as sacred in Austin. It’s part family reunion, part picnic, part performance art camp, part music festival – but more than anything, it’s a magical day where the joy and relief and sweetness in the air are palpable. Everyone’s faces get so radiant, so ecstatically happy just to be together again. In a lot of ways, Gay Bi Gay Gay is the closest thing that Austin has to Mardi Gras day. Looking over these pictures for the first time in a few years takes me back. I always love photographing duos, or couples, and I realized that a lot of these relationships are no longer extant today, including my own. But some are. Hopefully the friendships and goodwill have survived, because you can see the love in these images, in these faces. My GBGG tradition involves decadent picnicking, homemade Bloody Marys, and copious face-painting! I find doing elaborate macquillage to be extremely meditative and relaxing, and I was honored to do Big Freedia’s stage makeup that year, as well as decorating the lovely mugs of some of my favorite folks. Evidence of big queer love, serious ass-shakin’, and major magic follows below…

Rebecca Havemeyer

Raven

I forget who these guys were! But they were really funny!

Me and Lester

Lester

I found pie, and then a little bee found me. She wouldn’t leave my finger for the longest time…

Frank of Jean Eric

Rach Huck

Sassy Delure

Release the bats! BITE!

Erica Nix

Corinne Loperfido

Big Freedia the Queen Diva

Freedia + Lester

Colin + Freedia


Rusty + Corinne

Lisa + Sienna

Cuppy + Ruthie

Maia + Eli

Franks + Karen of Jean Eric

Unicorns!

Bobby Johns

Christeene

Katey Red + Melissa McWilliams

Rusty + Corinne

Shakin’ it for Freedia


Raven + Francesca

Lester
The full set of photos is here: GAY BI GAY GAY 2011
And more, from The Gay PlaceGay Place: Gay Bi Gay Gay Day

Here’s the piece I wrote about GBGG that I wrote for Coilhouse a few years back:
Gay Bi Gay Gay
And some articles about this year’s Gay Bi:
from The Austin Chronicle – The Gay Place: Family Tradition – The fall and rise of Gaybigaygay
GayBiGayGay Line-Up Announced! Here’s what we know about the line-up at the annual free post-SX gay fest