{"id":168776,"date":"2026-02-25T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168776\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:05:06","slug":"2026-events-set-for-new-host-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168776\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 events set for new host hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

GayDays Inc.<\/a> will have festivities this year, and they\u2019ll be held at a new host hotel in Kissimmee, organizers have announced.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the group said its June events had been paused, but an email to supporters and updates to its official website now indicate that they are a go for 2026. And some new events \u2014 including a comedy show and a game show \u2014 have been added.<\/p>\n

Activities now are slated for the Holiday Inn & Suites Orlando SW \u2014 Celebration Area<\/a> on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway for June 4-8. The entire 440-room resort has been booked by GayDays, and all official events will take place there, organizers say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is about bringing the energy back together in one place,\u201d GayDays\u2019 Charles Cantrell said in the email.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe listened to our community and focused on creating a space that truly feels like ours,\u201d Josh Duke said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the host hotel was DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando<\/a> on International Drive.<\/p>\n

The 2026 schedule<\/a> now includes pool parties, foam parties, a piano lounge, comedy show, drag bingo, karaoke, Miss Gay Days Pageant, Mr. Gay Days Leather competition and a vendor expo.<\/p>\n

This will mark the 35th edition of the event. Its roots go back to 1991, when members of an online community decided to meet at Disney\u2019s Magic Kingdom<\/a> theme park. They wore red shirts to help them spot one another among the Walt Disney World<\/a> crowds.<\/p>\n

Party on: Orlando\u2019s LGBTQ gatherings still on tap for June<\/a><\/p>\n

In the decades since, activities have expanded with multiple organizers hosting events at venues near or at theme parks and along International Drive. GayDays Inc. is one of those groups, while \u201cgay days\u201d continues to be a casual generic term for all the LGBTQ-themed goings-on in Orlando, the first weekend in June.\u00a0 More than 150,000 attendees have been reported in past years.<\/p>\n

Options for 2026 include One Magical Weekend<\/a>, Bear Jamboree<\/a>, Girls in Wonderland<\/a> and Pride Cup<\/a>, a set of athletic competitions, and other nightclub promotions.<\/p>\n

GayDays Inc. event tickets and hotel bookings are now available. For details, go to gaydays.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GayDays Inc. will have festivities this year, and they\u2019ll be held at a new host hotel in Kissimmee,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,168,2659,28,29,1975,9571,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,1976,109,76686,76688,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":["post-168776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-celebration","tag-disney-world","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-kissimmee","tag-lake-buena-vista","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-osceola-county","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-social-theme-parks","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-tourism","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}