What do you do when you get over 100 people packed inside a venue that has a capacity of less than 50? That’s exactly what happened this past Saturday in the Carriage House, when DJ Mansour and Miles Griffis performed for the first series of Gayhard Productions. The idea came about after Miles wanted to recreate a gay club on campus for queer students and other students to come together and enjoy a night of good house music. The name came about from recent graduate Brooks Fleet, who created brilliant party themes for his Big Gay Parties and was a play-off of the student organization Playhard Productions on campus.
One reason that this event was extremely exciting was its location. The Carriage House is a venue that had gone a bit off the radar, and was something that students weren’t able to use as readily. For many students, underclassmen in particular, this was the first time that they were able to experience a music event such as this one at the Carriage House, even though a lot of students know it as the space that held the first rounds of Battle of the Bands. Walking into that space before the event, it was set up as a classroom and it was quite hard to imagine the space packed and mimicking a club. However, once the tables and chairs were moved, lighting was added, queer music videos were projected on the roof, a few elevated dancers arrived, and got the speakers set up, it started to look a bit more like what was imagined.
After a lot of running back and forth and trying to figure out how to set up speakers and subs, the venue was ready to go and people slowly began to trickle in. The beginning was a standard crowd, but around 10:30 p.m., the space began to get crowded and there was even a line outside. Compared to the Sounds of Colorado College event that was the day before with Homeboy Sandman, there was an exponentially bigger turnout and people stayed for the entire night to dance to the house music despite there being other options for events on campus.
Although there were some issues with security, capacity, and circumstances requiring the event to be temporarily shut down, many still stated that the event was very much a success and that there should definitely be more of these. For a lot of people this was an opportunity to come together and feel comfortable with their sexuality without too much pressure.
Originally, the plan was to do these every two blocks or so. Whether or not that happens going forward is still up in the air. There are still many considerations for an event of such magnitude. Should there be a bigger venue, or was part of its success attributed to its location in the Carriage House? Should it be ticketed, or does this raise some issues or cause discomfort for those who want to attend the event but may not feel comfortable attending alone, or getting a ticket? Regardless, there will be another one in the future, and hopefully, students will turn out for that one as well.