BBB 2011 Review – Butts, Boobs, …..and Bust?
So “Bust” may be a little strong language for the title of this review of the 2011 edition of Butts, Boobs, and Boats, but considering all the factors it was quite a disappointment in comparison to years past.
Before I start, let me clarify a couple of things…
1.) We had an amazing weekend which is really what it is all about, right? The reason that did not help the review is because in large part that amazing time came from the company we brought with us and the fun we made ourselves.
2.) Please don’t get us wrong, the BBB Saturday event was a great time and party. The catch is, due to the reasons we will outline below I am not sure it really separated itself from the many local events that take place in various cities on a regular basis throughout the summer. If you live close to Austin, was it worth coming out… Sure! If you were traveling to attend the event I am not sure you got your moneys worth as any normal weekend in Vegas, Ft. Lauderdale, or Havasu would have probably been comparable.
So why are we whining?
Technically we are not whining, as we admitted to having a great time, but for the purposes of this article we do want to point out what we experienced.
Where the heck did everyone go?
Our biggest disappointment was the turnout this year. Obviously with boobs everywhere I was not going to waste my visual acumen on the counting of people to get an accurate count of the turnout, but I am quite comfortable in saying that the event had at most half the attendees that we saw in the last couple of years. To be honest it may have been closer to one fourth of the previous attendance.
In years past, we always brought our barge early to the party to make sure we got a good spot and were still amazed at the amount of bodies on the water by 10AM. This year, since we decided not to host a barge we did not arrive at the event until almost 11AM and were shocked to see only one barge and five boats on the water when we arrived.
Throughout the afternoon, the crowd definitely picked up, but I don’t believe we ever saw more than three barges at the event. In the past there have been as high as seven to ten of the large party barges. Of the three barges there was only one that looked to be anywhere close to capacity. The official “host” barge even appeared to be holding a relatively light crowd, but did have a live band this year which was a nice touch. I am not saying the band was good or that you could hear them from more than a few feet away, but we give an “A” for effort.
Personal boats were way down in number this year as well. In past years we have seen three to four giant rows of boats stretching the entire length of the shore, this year we would be optimistic to say there was even a solid single line of personal boats.
On a side note: Even with the small number of personal boats they did manage to block in one of the large party barges for several hours which provided quite a soap opera as the crew of the barge argued back and forth with the party goers on the small boats and local sheriff personnel.
So where were you? and why? If you have attended this event in the past and skipped it this year leave us a comment below and let us know why? We have really enjoyed this event in the past and are curious if it is going to survive?
About as vanilla as swinger gets
Another reason we felt this event lost a lot of its luster this year, is that the whole thing felt very vanilla. This year the pre and after party where both held on Sixth Street in Austin. The pre party was actually not an event at all as party goers were just encouraged to visit any one of several selected bars on Sixth Street that were packed full of college students from the University of Texas just up the street.
Sixth Street is a great place to go and definitely put it on your beer drinking “bucket list”, but the environment made it virtually impossible to meet other Lifestylers which in our mind is one of the main attractions of events like this. Secondly, flirting (which is beautifully rampant at swinger parties) can be quite dangerous in a bar full of young, heavily testosterone’d, insanely jealous, and punch happy college kids. When the Swinger and Vanilla crowds mix the atmosphere always defaults to vanilla (except for possibly Mardi Gras, Carnival, and a couple of other flirtatious phenomenon)
Nothing wrong with a good vanilla party with sexy people, but as most of you will agree a good swinger party with sexy people is so much better!
The after party was definitely better, as the organizers at least settled on a single bar called Pure in the heart of sixth street. Pure is a fun bar and we loved the DJ playing everything from “old school” to “this week” music. Our only disappointment for the after party was evidently they had trouble filling the club, because when we were leaving we saw the bouncers advertising the “swingers” party (supposedly private to lifestyle couples only) to a line of young college boys eager to pay the $75 dollars (Entry fee for single males) to mingle with a bunch of swingers! Reread our comment on the intermingling of college boys and swingers above to see why this could be an issue.
Money is the root of all evil
Over the last couple of years we have seen this event become more heavily monetized as a profit generating event versus a great party that can generate some cash. I am all for the organizers making some money, as God bless we know they must work incredibly hard putting this shindig together and deserve to be compensated for their time and effort, but we can’t help but feel the ‘dash for cash’ is harming the event.
The pre and after parties seem to be aimed solely at bars and clubs that give the biggest payout to the organizers versus venues that make the most “swinger” sense. For instance we paid $32 dollars a couple to get in a Pure nightclub that on any other Saturday would have no cover and 25 cent drinks. (according to the radio ad we heard on the way to the club)
It was also quite interesting that we did not pay Pure nightclub to enter the door, but a couple representing the organizers filling a box with cash. That being said, I have no complaints with the $32 dollars as we all would agree that is a cheap date as far as the Lifestyle goes. My point is, I would have gladly paid $75 if the party was truly a private party for swingers only instead of the free for all for whoever had cash in hand.
Another side note: I was also quite surprised to see that the organizers had people attaching their banners to all the boats on the water. We swam back up to our rented pontoon boat for drink refills only to find a BBB banner attached with zip ties to its rails. This was not a terribly big deal, but it did make me curious what they would have thought if I would have slapped a banner of Mrs. G’s sexy ass on their boat advertising gentlenibbles.com.
Ok, after reading the above again I can’t help but feel like a bit of “douche” (as my son would say) with way to harsh a review of a great party. So let me spend a few lines here telling you about what makes this event so special.
- If you have never partied naked to half naked in a large body of water with a group of swingers numbering greater than a couple of hundred you may as well enter a convent. There is not a party in any club in the world that can provide the same energy as that many sexy people flirting and flaunting in the Water. Think about the greatest “pool party” you have ever been to and then multiply that by the coolest nightclub you have ever attended. That is what a giant Lake or Water party provides, and BBB in the past has been one of the great ones!
- Austin is a great place for an event like this. The overwhelming conservatism of the state of Texas curbed with the liberal Mecca that is Austin makes for some of the friendliest swingers in the country, and a great place to visit.
- Lastly, have you seen Mrs. Gentlenibbles topless in a Bikini? I would travel to Mogadishu on hand rowed dingy to party with that hottie! Fortunately, I have connections which make this a much more obtainable goal!
In the long run, will we be back next year? Probably. Will we ever host a barge again? Not sure. Are we rooting like hell for this event to come back big next year? You bet your ass!
Are we wrong? What are your thoughts on the event? Leave a comment below and let us know!
~ your sunburned correspondent….
Mr. Gentlenibbles!
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We feel 100% the same way. Except we were on the barge that was blocked in, and the smaller boats in the way were asked nicely, informed politely, asked firmly, ad nauseum until finally a few on the barge got pissed off. In my humble opinion, pretty justified. We were shuttled off at about 6ish, two hours after we were supposed to leave and the barge showed no signs of being able to leave. We boat on Lake Lewisville and have NEVER seen this kind of behavior from boaters, no matter who was trying to tie up, cut through or leave. That being that, we were surprised at turnout, disappointed in venues etc pretty much everything you said. Don’t think we’ll be back.
@OhMyStars – Glad to see we were not alone in our thoughts about the party. Sorry you guys got stuck on the barge, hopefully it did not interfere too much with the rest of the evenings activities. Thanks for the back story on the barge, we must have missed the original discussion between the two groups. I will edit the story a bit to give a fairer view of the story.
We agree with the first draft of your story. We can’t understand why the Wet’n'Wild/SDC Barge ever thought it was a good idea to show up so late. They are the host and know that they needed to be there early to get tied to shore. Instead like usual they demand that everybody cater to their needs. There were already two lines of boats when the barge arrived after noon to the Hollow. They asked everybody to move, pull anchor so that they could take up the majority of the swim area just so that they could be center stage. Then they blast their music over everybody else’s personal boats, again we have to listen to what they decided to play. Top that off, they have several folks on the barge taking pictures without folks permission to do so, a violation of Hippie Hollow park rules, much less basic lifestyle edict of ask first. The barge also came into the swim area so fast people in the water were having difficulty getting out of the way with little regard to the safety of the swimmers that were already there. Then after only being there four hours, again they expect everybody to move out of thier way so they can leave. It’s not easy getting anchored, and tied up at the hollow to maintain a safe distance from everybody and be able to enjoy being there without being harrassed by a barge that basically bulied their way in. This whole year’s BBB events have been one cluster mess after another. From them demanding the local clubs pay them a high per a couple pre-party wrist band event, to them arriving late to the Hollow, forcing everyboyd out of their way. To the over packed Pure Ultra lounge where again we were faced with folks who have forgotten the ask first before you touch rules. My wife and myself found ourselves being groped and fondled at the club with no regard to asking first by complete strangers. To top that off, the biggest insult of the night was when we called it enough and returned to the hotel lounge and had a few drinks there with some close friends. After the bar closed we started walking toward the recieption area, stopped and talked to another couple that were more friends of ours. It’s 2am and the mass flood of party goers starting coming through the lobby. A group of around ten walk through and one lady as she passes by reaches over and yanks my wife’s dress down exposing her in the lobby of the Hotel. The offender and her entourage bust out laughing like they were back in high school picking on a new freshman. In our opnion SDC and BBB have lost touch of what the lifestyle is about. This isn’t about money first, it’s the members. Treat folks with respect, remember to ask first and be friendly. Plan your events correctly and be on time. Don’t force folks to cater to you when you fail to plan. Personally, we will not return to any BBB sponsored parties. If we attend any BBB events at Hippie Hollow we will support the local lifestyle clubs with our attendance instead. This is our home town and we expect that when somebody says a club is closed to a private party that is exactly what it is, that no tickets for no price are avaialbe to the public, or that the party is advertised at the door for any that pass by what that party is for.
My guess is that the lake level being so very low killed turnout, for one thing. We’ll give our review later this week, so I’ll spare you my opinion here.
I’m sorry we missed seeing you guys this year! I especially miss seeing Mrs. Gentlenibbles topless.
-Mrs. Lifestylelife
We are on the same page. I will say this years event was a bust. I was wondering if we were the only ones that felt this way. I started a blog on Sdc to get other folks opinion but not one person has come forward to say anything positive or negative. So maybe we just whining! Lol
@HHregulars – Sorry to hear about all the trouble.
@Lifestylelife – Hey there gorgeous, missed seeing you two there as well. Just checked out the site and looks like you hotties are still going strong! Love the site design!!! To others reading this check out there podcast at http://www.lifestylelife.net
@Hotasiancrmel – Let us know when you get some feedback from your blog, we would love to hear.
The sponsors view… n please forgive me for being winded – believe it or not I had more to say
)
MrGentle… It’s always about who you’re with, you were very smart to pack your own fun… as you should always pack for any type of weather. From what you’ve written in the past, I knew you would be the informed one with an objective opinion.
Please allow me to ad my two cents here and see if maybe I can shed some light on the current state of the Lifestyle and other things that I had heard prior to, during and after the event. Remember, I was one of the people who looked at this from a business standpoint from the beginning. I was happy to pay for sponsorship, coupled with a very large bill from our stay at the hotel and product we purchased for the After Party we threw, it was very expensive. You really don’t want to know how much
Where the heck did everyone go?
People are broke… the younger you are, the less money you have! Lifestyle events have been shrinking for years. We’ve seen a drop in attendance, some from what we’ve done, but mostly outside influences. House parties and events that require less out of pocket expense are chic now. With FB and hundreds of other communication tools out there, it’s easier to find a party close to home. Putting a boat in the water this year after the previous years troubles, is now considered work and has a bigger expense than ever to operate. People are selling their boats and the luxury mentality is falling by the wayside. It’s the economy and gas prices without a doubt! SDC had a great list, and they are still the big dog here in Texas, but the chat room where people created an environment of communication and a building of excitement has also, for all intensive purposes, ceased to exist for Texas people. A fractured community to say the least. Surviving this should be easy if we all make a commitment to rally around and share what our non emotional thoughts are… I’m hoping that cognitive skills prevail and we can guide the powers at be to soak up the info and react accordingly.
About as vanilla as swinger gets:
I couldn’t agree with you more. The bar was full of vanilla people with a look on their faces of total distain for who had invaded their bar. Up until the last couple of years, you couldn’t get a vanilla bar to take an event like this, but back to the economy. That bar now will have rumors and various things said about it for some time to come. They will have to hear about it from their own community. I’ve experimented with this myself. I reacted to the overwhelming feeling of Lifestyle groups to find a more Vanilla feeling bar so they don’t actually have to feel like a Swinger (the new ones hate the word). Not to mention they love to “convert the vanillas”. I opened my doors to an After Hours party and Lifestyle folks freaked out! It was from 3am till 8am. Not even during hours. This is common and it does not work!!!! Not even a late hours event after two.
I called Pure two days before to order bottle service so I would have a place for my big ass to sit… I thought I was late and they wouldn’t have anything left… was I wrong. I was the only one who had called. They told me that they would be opening the doors to GP at 12:30am. Bottle service was a place where Carl, and the bar could have shored up their losses, or shortage for closing the event to outsiders. Their looking for an overall number at the end of the night that can justify the risk of closing the doors. They have no intensions on any future relationship with the organizer because they might not even be there next year. I’ve seen Lifestyle promoters pay the entire amount a bar would make on that day up front, for an average Friday or Saturday. As the promoter is trying to make their money back, they turn up the air as hot as they can to run them out, and told them the air was broken, sorry. They made their money, time to go home. One occasion was in Vegas and they forgot to ask for the couches in the bar and were told as people tried to sit that they were all sold out for their 1am party and could not be used… not in the contract. These are things that people who’ve never been in the business forget to ask or put in a contract. In my opinion, the best thing to do in these situations, would be a hall or existing Lifestyle club and decorate it to represent the theme. Cheap and it’s yours. All we do by exposing our fun, wild and expressive selves to the GP (general public), is reinforce their theory of what they think swingers are as a whole. They aren’t interested or they would be at the swinger bar with you. They see it as an invasion. I even overheard some of the younger crowd telling peeps ” the old people are upstairs” on Friday. They suck for saying it, but it is their bar. I though it was brilliant and enjoyed every minute of 6th street. What a great time… so lively and amazingly intelligent of the peeps in Austin to keep it all right there and manage it so well. You are so lucky to have that party!
I don’t want to take up two pages, but I do want to tell you how important dialogue is to making it better. Carl and the other people involved are pawns in a game that has eaten the best promoters over the years. It’s a thankless job to prepare such a huge party and not get to enjoy it yourself. I’ve learned so much over the years from all the negative things said. I hate to hear about the folks not wanting to come back… if they fixed all the wrongs next year, I hope some would change their minds. I do know parties don’t last forever and we should applaud the good times we had at these parties in the past, not just one. Let’s help Carl and his team figure it out…
Moral to the story… let’s stay on Fantasy Island. Support your local clubs!
Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it.—Unknown
The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs… one step at a time. ~ Joe Girard
The major difference between the big shot and the little shot is the big shot is just a little shot who kept on shooting. ~ Zig Ziglar
You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~ A.A. Milne
Life is about choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you like to be. ~ Unknown
Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you. ~ J. Gitomer
The numbers were absolutely down this year but we are Margaritas half full kind of people so I will focus on what I saw were the positives.
Player’sATX had a great pre-party on Thursday. There weren’t a ton of people, but the crowd had a great time. It definitely served as a nice precursor to the weekend.
I always enjoy 6th street. We run a barge and it provided the opportunity to hang with a lot of old friends and new friends that came from San Antonio, Dallas or Houston areas. Because it wasn’t under one roof like the Shock the Vanillas at Graham’s in the past, it wasn’t quite as good a venue, but we still had fun.
Saturday at the lake was an absolute blast for us. The numbers were definitely down but our barge served as a rallying point (we always have plenty of food, friends and fun and are welcoming to all. Don’t get me wrong, our barge was full of hotties, but the LS is only part about the fucking and part about being able to party with like minds. Nothing against those who like to congregate in their islands of beauty and enjoy the smell of their own flatulence…but you don’t have to fuck to be friends. Our barge was a blast. Maybe half the people on the lake ended up on our barge at some point and many from the rocks. We had a blast…and if a hot Puerto Rican felt like eating a pudding shot off of my cock…well…sometimes you just have to be a gracious host.
I thought the after party at Pure was much, much better than the blazing inferno that was Carlos and Charlies and the Puritan Police Party that was Lakeline Resort. Wasn’t aware of the single guy admission and never saw it but I would agree that if they planned to do that it should have been understood going in. I do think the BBB people should pull their heads out of the ass and sponsor a party at Players. It could hold nearly as much as Pure and they know how to host a LS party. But Pure was still a great time, I thought the Hilton was a nice venue, and all in all I had a great time. Again, we are optimists and I don’t disagree with any of the posts above. Our experience was just a bit more positive…but most of that came from the friends that came to be on the Nauti-lass.
Don’t give up on Austin. We love to have all of you come party with us. If SDC and BBB can’t figure it out, we just might have to get together and figure it out ourselves…;-)
@Iniquity – Thanks so much for the well worded response. No worries about the long windedness… If there is understand, it is long windedness (I may have just made up a word there)
I readily admit it easy for us to complain, because it is not our blood, sweat, and tears that make it happen and many times we have been accused (accurately) of not being realistic when it comes to the balance of Lifestyle activities and the business owners needs to survive and profit.
On a side note: Mrs. Gentlenibbles and myself were real excited last weekend as we were in Dallas and had planned on finally visiting Iniquity, until unfortunately Mrs. G started feeling unwell. One of these days we are hoping to make it up there as we have heard you truly have a beautiful club!
@friendswithbens
Don’t get us wrong we had a great time, it was just like going to your favorite restaurant only to have steak overcooked….or something like that.
We agree this year was amazing when compared to the absolute failures that Carlos and Charlies have been. And no worries about us giving up on Austin, we love the town!
Short and sweet.
I have gone 3 other years, none where I actually lived in Austin. The last time being last year 2010 and had a blast minus a few very small disappointments.
This year, I saw the info and immediately decided not to go. Why?
1. 6th Street? Really?
2. Distance from lake to parties.
3. Not a takeover hotel.
Will I ever go again? No.
Hope to see everyone at other great parties across the nation.
@Gypsie – Thanks for the response. We are firm believers in the Hotel Takeover even if it has to be a smaller hotel. Although, after what Lakeway pulled last year I can understand the sponsers moving the party.
Last year we brought our own group and did our own simultaneous takeover at one of the Hampton Inn’s in the area and loved it. We are kind of kicking ourselves for not doing that again this year as it defintely much more fun that way!
Mr. G
We have been to every event BBB has put on. When we saw the parties and hotel were going to be downtown we decided for the first time to maybe skip all the downtown events. (we did)
The lake was fun even with the smallest crowd since BBB started. We witnessed the argument to let the Iniquity barge pass through the mediocre line that had formed. Yes they could of been there a little earlier, but it was posted to try to let the barges inside. The few pontoon boats that were blocking them didn’t have any problem moving once they did. In fact most didn’t even have anchors down. We were the big cruiser that held them all in place. I started to pull my anchor and turn them all loose to let the barge in. Last after the barge tied up and the music started we noticed the people who wouldn’t move dancing to the bands music. We enjoyed the band and they did take long breaks so we could play our music. Thanks to Iniquity for livening up the party.
This years event was posted on many non LS sites. People from all over town were talking about it. Makes us wonder if some people stayed away due to that? The event is getting alot of non LS publicity. We saw lots of people taking pictures without asking… Then you turn up on someone’s FB page, or their profile pics. Remember some people try to be discreet about being in the LS.
We didn’t attend the Saturday night so called “private party” but friends of ours did. They said it started out fun but went downhill as the night progressed. The club opened the doors to the public and the college kids flooded the bar. The drunken obnoxious college kids got out of hand. Groping our friends wife’s and girlfriends. We did buy 4 tickets to the event but didn’t go. Sounds like we made the right decision!
We will wait and see what next years event schedule is. If some of the same downtown parties we wont go again. There was 12 people on our boat who skipped the downtown parties also. They all have said the same. All have been to every event.
A lot of people work hard on this event and do want to thank them. We think some new ideas and event locations need to be changed. At least go back to a complete hotel takeover.
Oh, the real fun Hippie Hollow day was Sunday. We went back out and had a blast. Lots of boats out.
I wanted to add something to my previous post while the topic is still hot… People are under the impression that Hippie Hollow is a private area and there are laws stopping people from photographing others while on boats nude. If you see public servants policing anything while on official business for a municipality, state or anywhere for that matter, it is public domain and you can’t stop them from photographing you. Hippie Hollow has no authority to stop you… I think they ask you not to and would probably say it’s a policy to run you off, but no laws are broken. If you are nude in public you run the risk of pics being taken and in this day n age people need pics for profiles letting folks know how great of a time their having.
I would never, and I mean never, knowingly take a pic of someone and post it while in a vulnerable state of dress. We have taken pics at BBB before and a similar situation occurred. We tried to let the person know she forfeited her rights when she posed for the shot and it turned into a big mess, which turned into a bigger mess. She had no idea what she was talking about and I found the penal codes to make sure we were ok…. (TX Penal Code 21.15(a) ). Subsection b covers bathrooms and dressing rooms, which r not ok to photograph in.
Common sense again should prevail, but the Lifestyle has so many different people… Some think it’s cool and others not so much. Hope I didn’t offend anyone with this post, just want to make sure I clear that up.
It’s real simple, they let money get in the way of the spirit of BBB. In Austin we’ll just host our own parties and ignore BBB and benefit from the extra people in town for new friendships.
Oh, and the lake is FIRST COME FIRST SERVED.. The party barge should have been told to POUND SAND!
Those of us in Austin are already talking about returning to our roots and welcoming our out of town friends into parties that are hosted by lifestylers and not money grubbers..
PURE on 6th?! Idiots! Got what you deserved (the hosts). Burning hot and no room to move…. and of course no room to play.. That was great for us in the clubs as people left Pure and joined us to come play…
Epic Fail!
This was our first year that we personally couldn’t be there (we are in Europe), but of course we sent lots of Kasidie rep’s since we sponsored the Saturday night main party, as well as the after-party at Players.
We know the event hosts very well, and they were really between a rock and a hard place with Lakeway pulling out. Should the event be part of a hotel takeover? Absolutely! It seems they were really blindsided this year, but from the reports we’ve heard they still put on an event where people had a lot of fun (both at the events and on their own).
The smaller crowd was likely due to there not being a hotel takeover, the main night events being at vanilla venues and the lake being down. We’re sure those things will be different next year and the party will be bigger than ever (and of course Kasidie plans to remain one of the major sponsors).
Regarding Wet-n-Wild, they care deeply about the event and want everyone to have fun. Sure, they need to make some money for their countless hours of work and travel in putting this together, but they are most definitely NOT all-about-the-money. That’s just not them.
The 2011 BBB was our first . And we loved it. We heard from other couples that it wasn’t as good as the past events. But overall we give it a seven. ATX was awsome, and so was Lake Travis. The only bad thing about the event was the club shutting down so early. Swingers party all night! Hopefully next year will be better! And maybe we’ll get to meet you two.
Caramel Craze
@Caramel Craze – Thanks and looking forward to meeting you guys next year!
Wow, this is still front page in December! LOL
Well, we had fun. We also understand why they had to get away from Lakeway.
Friday “Shock the Vanillas” anywhere just seems to be a non mutual consent thing. Mebbe it should be “Entice or Invite the Vanillas”
Saturday. We were on the big boat that was late. We were also on the boat the previous year that was too late to dock. (we didn’t make either of them wait on us! LOL) We always thought you should send out a couple of speed boats in the early AM to reserve the barge spot.
Whether the venue is Sixth Street or not, being able to walk back to the hotel without driving is safer for everyone. We think Players ATX would be a great venue. Perhaps with a locked out hotel or a slumber party there or nearby.
Larry from Friends is an expert at setting the hotel thing up. Perhaps there is a warehouse off 4th or something that could be taken over.
We’ve done enough promotions to know that there is not enough money being made to make up for the frantic blur or the risk. You see a few friends at the start and then it’s over and you’re picking up trash. We were at the first BBB and missed one. The growth is amazing and difficult to manage. Many of the things we would like see done better are probably simply governed by difficult choices handed to the promoters.
How about for every complaint, we offer a solution?
Finding a lifestyle friendly hotel that you can lock down? For how many? Probably not that easy. You want to risk your checkbook and reserve hundreds of rooms?
A club, in a perfect location, that will lock down? I was amazed they got Pure. Sixth St. would have to rank as more accepting than the Mayor of Lakeway.
Our only regret was missing the Iniquity party. Not sure what we ate on 6th, but we were done.
We all want an amazing event. It’s just tough to carve a weekend out of local vanilla resources and I applaud the promoters for what they were able to do.
SATXLovers
We didnt go this past year. Its the first year we have missed BBB since learning of the event. I personally would like to attend an event where there is more freedom to be a little risque without getting arrested.
The parties are not private so truly letting your hair down really cannot happen at BBB as of yet. We would love to attend in the future if this aspect of the event changes. I do enough partying with fun friends in vanilla bars locally. Im not interested in driving 4+ hours and spending $$$ to do it in Austin. Just my 2 cents.
We just found the blog this morning so apologies for responding on a rather dated thread, but we do want to give the newbies point of view on it, for whatever its worth. The BBB party had been general knowledge to us for a few years, but the 2011 party was the first time we had a chance to make the drive out to it. We drove out in the morning and made it to the lake by 10:30 and were amazed at how low the lake was. So after an arduous repelling down the cliffs, and a bit of a work out to swim out to the boats, we were a little disappointed not to get an invite from anyone to come aboard during the five hours we were in the water between the barge and boats. We did have a nice couple talk to us in the water for a few minutes and met two great couples on the shore/rocks. The sense of clique and unwelcome was hard to not let live, but we got over it and got excited about the party that night.
We have friends that have a house a couple miles from 6th street which did help make the trip relatively inexpensive. They wanted to come to the club with us and even though they are curious but not capable, we said sure come along. Thank God we did. Just like the lake, with the exception of some guy drunkingly trying to pick up the wife, there was a strong sense of if your not with us, what are you doing here. The club was not the best choice of venue for reasons mentioned by others and we were out of there before midnight.
It could be said that we perhapse are not aggressive enough to solicit introductions from people, but that sounds quite counter to the lifestyle as we know it. The whole event could be organized and promoted more around the social mingling and the fun, less about the event for the events sake. We have no idea how the money works in this so no comment. We did say we wont be going back without a boat and we will party that night with who we meet while on our boat and skip the club if its not a private event where people can get much loser than they were for the 2011 version.
We have been in attendance for the last four years and had a great time at the park, but not so much at Pure. We tried the barge party but as locals, we thought it wasn’t worth the bang for our bucks. We have tried the official after parties with the same results. Last year we returned to our roots and brought our inflatable island and an ice chest. This puts us in the center of the party and at water level so that others are not put off by the private vibe of the barges. We also brought rope to improvise an anchor so that we wouldn’t have to stay in constant motion. I think part of the overall problem is that people are making this way too complicated, I want a vacation party, not an itinerary and stress. We are again tempted to try the hotel and ballroom party but then again we have had the most fun just doing our own thing and following the winds. Maybe we follow some new friends to a hotel, or maybe to PlayersATX, all depends on the mood. You can count on us to fly the Jolly Roger, bring the good rum, and host the most laid back raft in the fleet!
SNG
I hope this year’s event won’t be a bust. Looking forward for something authentic and new. More exquisite and mind blowing event planning will do the magic.