Calling all queers

Divers/Cité has your booty
booked for a wild weekend

BLISTERING PAULISTA: Amannda

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

As pride week rolls into the weekend, Divers/Cité will crank up the pace of its ongoing party, providing the LGBTA masses with the beats and the beauty they so desire. What up, you ask? Check it!

Insomniacs and danceaholics will want to look into D/C’s range of prime-time and afterhours parties at Unity and Stereo, but be sure to recover from your Friday night by 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, when the Sunset Party goes down at Emilie-Gamelin park’s Loto-Québec stage. “Do Brasil” is the subtitle for this open-air orgy of house music (with Latin flair), bringing together top DJs from Rio (Ana Paula and Rafael Calvente) and Curitiba (Ale Bittencourt), as well as Sao Paulo singer Amannda, who will perform with all three DJs.

Be at the Berri/Ontario stage at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, and brace yourself for one of D/C’s most eagerly anticipated annual attractions: Mascara, starring the dame of drag, the queen of queer, Mado! In tow are the usual suspects from Cabaret Mado, a large cast of lovelies including Nana, Miss Butterfly and Tracy Trash, who will perform solo and as an ensemble to pay tribute to pop divas from Celine to Britney, the Spice Girls to J.Lo, Kylie to Janet. And yes, that’s still Miss Jackson if you’re nasty.

Eh, les gouines! Come one, come all for Lesbomonde, and feast your eyes on a fête full of dancing girls, grrrls and boiz. Musically, it’s one of D/C’s most diverse events, with the selections of DJs Susan Morabito (a star scenester from NYC), Torus and Lady McCoy ranging from rock to electro to R&B to world beat to vocal house to tribal trance. Hit that dancefloor on Saturday, Aug. 2 at the Just for Laughs museum, 9:30 p.m., $30.

On Sunday, Aug. 3, the Berri/Ontario stage will be the scene of “dance delirium” as the audio-visual spectacular La Grande Danse takes over the street at 1 p.m. It’s DJs galore as the talents of Mexico’s Isaac Escalante will be showcased alongside beloved homies Nicola Torriero and Jester, bringing the people a blend of hard, tribal and progressive house, with jazz, funk, soul and electro inflections. Singers Marleen Menard, Patsy Gallant and Yan Lavoie join in for the grand finale.

And at 3 p.m. on Sunday, at the Loto-Québec stage, be ready to bump and grind and raise your arms skyward for Le Grand Bal Disco, featuring disco legend Robert Ouimet on the decks and live music courtesy of the Boogie Wonder Band, V.nus (singing Celine) and R&B queen Deborah Cox, choreographed by Jean-Marc St-Yves. Dance!

For the complete schedule
and other details, go to
www.diverscite.org