GUTTER: THE Party GiBs Have Been Waiting For

This Friday GUTTER makes its debut, hopefully not a one-off party but a regular gap-filler for the lousy GiB party scene lately.

There aren't many things that make me want to be in Beirut right now. But this certainly is one of them.

Beirut Warms Up

You know Beirut summer has started when there’s one too many parties to choose from on any given weekend. That was already my feeling last Saturday when P…C… threw its Pirates de Cannes and Basement its last reunion party on the same night. But then again like many times I ended up choosing… neither.


Just like churches and mosques get fully booked come wedding season, which stretches all the way to September, so do the indoor and outdoor venues on summer weekends. All the major festivals - Byblos (and Off-Byblos), Baalbeck, Beiteddine, Beirut Music and Art Festival, Batroun) have already announced their concerts programs, but we can certainly expect some last minute surprises!

… As for BiG GiB parties, it seems the official summer kick-off will be coming from Matinée's Circuit Festival, with their June 18th Beirut Official Preparty – location still tbd.

Can you feel the heat approaching?

--by GiB#2. Flyer from Facebook

Dress It Up In Light

Just superb. That's the one word I would use to describe the sound & light show of the UFA event/competition, which premiered yesterday and will play again a few times until end of year.

For info, the insurance company brought together a bunch of Lebanese artists who created really cool short clips that were projected on the Downtown building. It used a very high-tech kind of 3D projectors that would tailor the projections to the greatest detail of the heritage building. Each competitor team's artwork came with its own soundtrack and had at least something creative, something impressive or something interesting about it... Long live young Lebanese talents, creativity, and energy!

On the downside this high level of quality makes it hard to choose who I want to vote for... I'll need to bring a better jacket and watch the show again another time (no worries, it's free!). But for now, I thought I'd use some of the low-res pics I took to make this collage - consider this my holiday wishes card! Best wishes to all of you folks.

- Post and pics by GiB#2.

Superfagadelicious!

It might seem like ages ago in Beirut standards, but the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious party two Saturdays ago, is one that’s worth stopping back at for a minute.

When the trendy gadget shop in Saifi commissioned an as-GiBfriendly-as-it-gets bunch of folks, to help it throw a theme party to advertize its brand, the result was simply brilliant. Litterally.

As the colorful, stylish and energetic crowd, quite mixed really but with way-above-average GiB attendance – a crowd that looked similar in some ways, but fresher and healthier than today’s Cotton Candy by an order of magnitude…

…Took over this amazing outdoor venue busting a 180 seaview from the rooftop of an abandoned sugar refinery on the Zalka seafront amidst splashes of artwork, candy and goodies all over the place, with a full-fledged Lomogrpahy photo exhibition featuring some pretty good pieces… and with mandatory glitter for everyone

…Moving to eclectic music by DJ’s Caline, Djette (Leila) and the 5-hour closing set by duo-de-choc Richie and Georges (pictured) playing all kinds of 90’s / 2000’s ear-candy tunes that kept the crowd going and going till the bar went dry, the glitter got sticky, the free water bottles moutain eroded, and the crowd got gibbier…

And then…

I did something I’d never done before ‘in front of everyone’ in Lebanon, not even in a shady corner in Acid. There, out on the dancefloor on this nicest pied-dans-l’eau terrace and surrounded by the cutest things in Beirut...
… I Kissed a Boy.

And I Liked It!

Only that three days, four showers and another one-time-guy later… I still had glitter on.


- Post and photos by GiB#2.

GiB#2 | Cotton Candy HIs and LOs

A couple years ago a bunch of folks realized – rightly so – that Beirut’s night scene could use a little more (pink) spice indeed. They went ahead and created a label, and started to throw out gigs, about once a month, that brought together a growing crowd of partygoers. They picked unusual, underground venues, hopping from a warehouse to an artist’s loft, from a rooftop to a deserted cinema, from a pool to a hotel suite.

Building on hype and word-of-mouth, in the beginning and for some time Cotton Candy has been able to build a fun, eclectic, LGBT-friendly crowd of likeminded party people. Every regular likes to remember their own favorite, that unforgettable Cotton Candy night.

Cotton Candy is still going, but since year 2 the parties have been hit or miss. On the good ones, the in-house DJs DJette, Tia & Romax, Jade (Basement) or Ordinary K set the place on fire so bad, the venue is trippy, the people pretty and the theme witty, and the vibe turns out great.

 At too many other gigs however, especially during the course of 2009, Cotton Candy seemed to be falling in the hole it dig for itself. Alternative turning Commercial. Eclectic turning Wannabe. Underground turning Suffocating. BYOB (bring-your-own-bottle) turning $50-Covers. Adult Adolescent turning Teenager. Creative turning Junk. Trashy turning Cheap. And GiB Loyalty was turning Boycott...

But then came the last two months’ Cotton Candies which fell more on the better side. Did the organizers get the wake-up call, and is Cotton Candy getting back on track? We GiBs certainly do hope so!

GiB#2| BEYROUTH :: YOU ARE INCREDIBLE :: I LOVE YOU -- Ferry Corsten 11/21/09

Ferry Corsten set the Forum de Beyrouth on fire last Saturday, with a 5-hour set that took the crowd way high (where it likes to be). Whether it’s MixFM or NRJ that does a better job at producing live gigs in Lebanon is a debatable issue, but this time the tandem NRJ / Poliakov (the vodka newcomer) certainly did not go cheap on the setting, with amazing light effects, laser show, stage, and sound. The crowd was perhaps a bit younger than usual, but this still showed to be the kind of place where you'll see two guys (or girls) kissing and dancing like there's no tomorrow (and no one around), or giving each others a 4am pit stop massage (for the straight version of it). And the usual GiBs certainly did not miss the rendezvous, dancing close in tight groups of friends, bare-chested and sweaty as of 2AM - you really couldn’t miss them!