Category Archives: Gay Event
Out In The Park 2023
Out In The Park at Six Flags Great America
Returns in 2023 for Year 12!
Have you ever been to a PRIVATE event at Six Flags?
Free Parking, much shorter lines and fun people.
It’s like a Fall Pride Celebration. And not only LGBTQ+ Pride – it’s a celebration of diversity and acceptance. Haters and harassments will not be tolerated. STAY HOME!
Saturday, September 10th, 2022 from 8 PM to 12AM
(Doors sometimes open earlier!)
Out In The Park is an annual private diversity event featuring unlimited riding of ALL Six Flags Great America’s amazing THRILL rides (with much shorter than usual lines! The park is only about 30% full!) with a portion of all ticket sales each year helping to benefit various non-profits. This year we will donate to AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
It’s important to us that everyone—no matter who you are, how you identify, or where you’re from—feel comfortable and safe to express themselves freely. Our message is simple: You are welcome here. People of any color, size, body type, gender, gender expression(s), and sexual orientation are welcome. Bigotry will not be tolerated and will be grounds for ejection from the park.
There will be 3 DJ’s spread around throughout the park. DJ Sean Parks and Dj AJ Dubbz, both from Chicago.
Plus DJ RNB from Milwaukee!
Official time for the event is 8pm – 12 Midnight. “We encourage people to get there at 7:30 PM; usually Six Flags opens the gates a little early and people tend to mingle in the parking lot with friends before the gates open.” says owner Derrick Sorles.
Ticket price drop this year!
Advance $45 tickets can be purchased here; http://CelebrateDiversityChicago.com
Attendees get FREE parking for this special event! September 3rd the price goes up to $50. $55 at the gate, IF AVAILABLE.
This event is capped at only 5,000 tickets, to ensure lines stay short for the rides. Season Passes cannot be honored for special events. All ages event. Drinks are available for purchase to those 21+
Round trip Bus rides are available from Lakeview for about $40
OFFICIAL AFTER PARTY AT CHARLIE’S BAR in Lakeview!
Out in the Park PRIVATE NIGHT 2022
Out In The Park at Six Flags Great America
Returns in 2022 for Year 11!
A Private Night in the Park to Celebrate Diversity
Saturday, September 10th, 2022 from 8 PM to 12AM
Out In The Park is an annual private diversity event featuring unlimited riding of ALL Six Flags Great America’s amazing THRILL rides (with much shorter than usual lines! The park is only about 30% full!) with a portion of all ticket sales each year helping to benefit various non-profits.
“2020/2021 was a devastating for almost everyone. It’s wonderful to see all the events coming back finally!” says BestGayChicago.com owner Michael Snell. “People seem really excited about this year and advance ticket sales are higher than they ever have been!
It’s important to us that everyone—no matter who you are, how you identify, or where you’re from—feel comfortable and safe to express themselves freely. Our message is simple: You are welcome here. People of any color, size, body type, gender, gender expression(s), and sexual orientation are welcome. Bigotry will not be tolerated and will be grounds for ejection from the park.
There will be 3 DJ’s spread around throughout the park. DJ Sean Parks and Dj Suave Smooth, both from Chicago. Plus DJ RNB from Milwaukee.
Official time for the event is 8pm – 12 Midnight. “We encourage people to get there at 7:30 PM; usually Six Flags opens the gates a little early and people tend to mingle in the parking lot with friends before the gates open.” says owner Derrick Sorles.
Ticket price drop this year!
Advance $43 tickets can be purchased here
Attendees get FREE parking for this special event! September 4th the price goes up to $48. $53 at the gate, IF AVAILABLE. This event is capped at only 5,000 tickets, to ensure lines stay short for the rides. Season Passes cannot be honored for special events.
All ages event. Drinks are available for purchase to those 21+
Round trip Bus rides are available from Lakeview for about $30 – details on website in August.
A portion from the ticket sales will be donated to AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION. (AHF) is a global nonprofit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to over 1,600,000 people in 45 countries.
BestGayChicago.com
Since 2007, BestGayChicago.com has been providing the best of everything gay and gay-friendly in the greater Chicago area. Owned and operated by Best Gay Inc., their sites provide news, information, travel tips and entertainment for the LGBTQ community.
(773) 206-8359
OUT IN THE PARK Six Flags Great America 2014
Out In The Park at Six Flags Great America
Returns in 2014 BIGGER Than EVER!
Lady Bunny Takes On Goliath!
A Spectacular Night of Amusement and Entertainment
Presented by MINI Cooper Chicago
That Will Help Benefit AIDS Resource Center Wisconsin (ARCW)
Saturday, September 13th, 2014 from 7PM to 12AM
Attendees for this year’s third annual Out In The Park Celebration are in for a night of EPIC proportions. Those who dare will have a unique opportunity to experience GOLIATH with the shortest waiting times of the season! Setting not one, but THREE new world records, Six Flags Great America’s GOLIATH will be the World’s fastest wooden coaster complete with the tallest and steepest drop, plunging riders 180 feet nearly straight down (85 Degrees) at 72 miles per hour!
All night, attendees can follow the bass to the Hometown Square dance area where The DJ’s of SCARLET Bar Chicago and Hostess Trannika Rex are paired up with the legendary, larger-than-life, over-the-top, gorgeous NYC entertainer that is the one and only LADY BUNNY! Drag Diva Supreme, DJ, and Comedienne Extraordinaire Lady Bunny takes center stage with SCARLET Bar burning up the turntables with nothing but danceable, FUN music and Lady Bunny closes the evening with her trademark, OUTRAGEOUS, pop-culture-lyric-comedy parodies!
Out In The Park is an annual private LGBT Saturday night fundraising event featuring unlimited riding of Six Flags Great America’s amazing THRILL rides with a portion of all ticket sales this year helping benefit AIDS Resource Center Wisconsin (ARCW). “One of the best elements of this event is that it is closed to the general public and this year our event piggy-backs a daytime corporate buyout so our attendees will be entering an EMPTY PARK!” explains Michael Snell, co-owner of BestGayChicago.com. “The LGBT community, their family, friends and supporters can enjoy the park with little to no lines and without homophobic hassles from anyone. It’s like a Fall Gay Pride Celebration with even MORE amusement and entertainment!”
In an interview with ChicagoPride.com: “We are very excited that this private night for charity continues to grow every year,” said Derrick Sorles, Snell’s husband of 15 years and business partner, “We are more than thrilled that Lady Bunny is flying in from New York to guest DJ and do her comedy schtick and be a part of the festivities. Trannika Rex and the DJ’s of SCARLET Bar know how to have FUN and play music you want to dance to! Handsome designer Traver Rains will be on hand! Add GOLIATH to the mix of all this and it will truly be a night that’s ridiculously great!”
Sorles continued on to say “The last two Out In The Park Events allowed us as a community to raise almost $25,000 for Chicago’s Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and Chicago House. This year were changing it up and raising money for the ARCW because Out In The Park enjoys huge support and attendance from Wisconsin folks because of the park’s close proximity and we feel it’s only fair that Wisconsin charities share in the proceeds occasionally as well.”
“We thank the Six Flags organization and Best Gay Cities for this wonderful opportunity to benefit from their 2014 Out In The Park event. The AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, the first Medicaid HIV medical home in the United States, serves 3,000 patients who are all confronting HIV/AIDS, a disease that is expensive, complex and still has no cure. We encourage every fan of adventure and adrenalin rides to come OUT on September 13, 2014 and have fun at Six Flags, because this fun will be converted into crucial funding for the ARCW Medical Center helping patients achieve longer, healthier lives with HIV.”
Dan Mueller, Chief Development Officer for AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin
Advance $39 tickets can be purchased at
and follow the instructions!
Hotels —if you are coming to Chicago for the weekend, we have 3 hotel choices in the heart of Boystown! CITY SUITES, WILLOWS HOTEL and MAJESTIC HOTEL. All the hotels are on our website GaySixFlagsChicago.com
AIDS Resource Center Wisconsin (ARCW)
The AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin is home to the ARCW Medical Center – Wisconsin’s largest and fastest growing HIV health care system. Through its integrated medical, dental and mental health clinics along with its pharmacy and dedicated social services that include food pantries, a legal program, and social work case management, more than 3,300 HIV patients in Wisconsin gain the health care and social services they need for long-term survival with HIV disease from ARCW.
BestGayChicago.com
Since 2007, BestGayChicago.com has been providing the best of everything gay and gay-friendly in the greater Chicago area. Owned and operated by Best Gay Inc., their sites provide news, information, travel tips and entertainment for the LGBT community. In 2012 they turned their network of connections and supporters into an opportunity for philanthropy. Producing and marketing events for the greater good in 3 states! (so far!)
Out In The Park at Six Flags Great America Chicago 2012 Inaugural Year A Huge Success!
Michael and I wish to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make this years inaugural Private LGBTQIA
OUT IN THE PARK at Six Flags Great America Chicago
a GINOURMOUS success!!!
Michael and I connected with the executive team at Six Flags in May of this year, 2012, wanting to do something officially “BestGay” sanctioned and they were ecstatic because they had been wanting to do a Gay event on a much more massive scale than ever hailed before at the park and we were fortunate they felt our vision of what this
GAY event could become fit best with theirs.
Yet, this year almost never happened and we were talking about 2013 because we simply couldn’t find a Saturday in September of 2012 where they could accommodate us without upsetting their existing general admission schedule or without competing with previously scheduled Gay fund raising events within our community those Saturday September nights.
HUGE props to the executive team again at Six Flags for thinking outside the box and coming back to us and saying “We are willing to keep the park open after our official closing time of 9pm on Saturday September 8th if you think you could make
a 9pm to 1am party in the park a success.”
That was all Michael and I needed to hear and we were off and running to make it happen with less than 7 weeks to the actual event day.
A HUGE heartfelt thanks to:
ALL of YOU that supported the event, came out, championed the hour of monsoon rain, and REALLY made it all happen (just hinting here-imagine, bring along simply ONE new friend next year and we can easily double our numbers-just saying).
HUGE Thank You to the executive team at Six Flags Great America Chicago, GLACEAU Vitamin Water, AbsolutelyChicagoSegwayTours, Halsted Pharmacy, RainbowPizza, Viaggio Italian Restaurants, and of course Ryan VanMeter, Bill Farrand and TPAN’s entire staff and volunteers that helped make this inaugural year’s event a huge success generating nearly
$12,000 for TPAN (Test Positive Aware Network)!
Also a big shout out to Matthew Harvat and Phil DaBeatz, our amazing hometown DJ’s, for giving us grooves to remember and dance to all night, despite soggy equipment at points and to GRAB Magazine, Chicago Pride.com, Boi Magazine and the L Stop for helping to spread the word to the entire LGBTQIA community
in such a short amount of time.
And so to make things easier to remember moving forward, OUT IN THE PARK Gay Day at Six Flags Great America Chicago will always be the
second (2nd) Saturday night every September for years to come.
So save the date for next year!
Saturday, September 14th, 2013 for 6pm until 1am.
OUT IN THE PARK 2013 will be bigger, better, longer and even GAY-er and
continue to raise money for local charities!
See you next September!
Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell
www.BestGayChicago.com
Gay Day Out in the Park at Great America Illinois
Six Flags Great America is rolling out
the Rainbow carpet for the LGBTQ community!
September 14th, 2013
It’s only $38!
Part of the tickets sold will go to CHICAGO HOUSE!
$38 PARK TICKETS ARE NOW LIVE
https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/tickets/index.aspx?promo_code=out#
or if you can not get the link to work
AND you get free parking when you buy your $38 ticket in advance!
Don’t drive? Don’t worry!
Various bars are providing luxury buses available from Boystown
Imagine, NO LINES for rides!
During the private event 9pm – 1am, there will be little or NO LONG LINES!
So whether you like the Superman ride – or the Batman ride….
or want to ride the new X FLIGHT over and over again, you can ride all night.
So tell all of your friends!
This very special Six Flags Great America
evening event is for the LGBTQ community
and their friends ONLY.
NO HATERS will be tolerated.
So there!
Brought to you by MINI Cooper of Chicago and BestGayChicago.com
First Annual Out in the Park Six Flags Great America to benefit TPAN
An all-new private LGBT event featuring rides, live music and a party-like atmosphere
BestGayChicago.com and vitaminwater® are excited to premiere an all new LGBTQ event and fundraiser at Six Flags Great America. Out In The Park 2012 will be a private event for the LGBTQ community, their friends and families. “We are very excited Six Flags Great America is allowing us this unique opportunity to produce such an awesome event at their park,” said Derrick Sorles, owner of BestGayChicago.com. “We are proud to have TPAN (Test Positive Awareness Network) as our benefitting charity.”
On Saturday, September 8, 2012, from 9pm – 1am, the park will be closed to the general public for this private event. Guests will enjoy the music of DJs, Matthew Harvat and Phil DaBeatz, as it is heard live throughout the park. The DJs will be spinning together simultaneously as a team bridging two styles that compliment each other and bringing a signature dance floor experience to Six Flags Great America. This amazing LGBT event is expected to welcome people from the five surrounding states coming together to pride-fully celebrate!
Tickets purchased in advance are $35 which includes admission to the park all day long, free parking and admission to the Private Event! A portion of the advance ticket sales will benefit TPAN. Tickets are available now online at sixflags.com using promo code OUT2012.
A limited number of bus tickets will be available departing from Uptown on Montrose Avenue, 1 block West of Broadway. Busses will depart at 3pm and also at 6pm. All busses will leave the park at 1am and return to Uptown. Bus tickets are extremely limited. Visit www.GaySixFlagsChicago.com for more information or call 773-878-5323.
About TPAN
Now in its 25th year, TPAN empowers everyone living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS to live open, healthy, and productive lives. TPAN innovates to deliver peer-led support programs and collaborative wellness services and to communicate comprehensive information. TPAN will do so until HIV/AIDS is eradicated.
About BestGayChicago.com
Since 2007, BestGayChicago.com has been providing the best of everything gay and gay-friendly in the greater Chicago area. Owned and operated by Best Gay Inc., their sites provide news, information, travel tips and entertainment for the LGBTQ community.
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