Thursday night marked the 10th anniversary of West Hollywood’s longest running and most deliciously deviant weekly party, BFD, a creation of Mario Diaz (King of LA’s Gay Nightlife).
Housed from its beginning in Fubar, one of WeHo’s seamiest watering holes, BFD isn’t your typical West Hollywood party. The drinks are strong, the lights are dim and the air is thick with sexual tension. And a clothesline hangs across the back, strung with the photos of those brave souls willing to have their genetalia judged by a bar full of their drunken peers.
On Thursday, Diaz enlisted the aid of some of LA’s most notable queer entertainers, artists and nightlife personalities to host and help him promote BFD’s birthday. He hand-picked the sexiest dancers from his extensive stable of go-go studs. And he tapped drag queen Vicky Vox to emcee the evening’s festivities.
But it takes more than glamorous friends and gorgeous, dancing man-candy to keep a party jumping every week for a decade. It takes passion and attention to detail. Diaz picks the videos that play in the bar, personally styles all of his dancers and when he’s not on the microphone he’s on the move, ensuring that every patron has a full glass in their hand. DJ Riley More plays the sultry beats that keep everybody’s bodies in motion.
For the last decade, Diaz has managed to capture a little bit of the decadent, “anything goes” spirit of New York’s East Village circa 1990, and set it loose in the coiffed, self-conscious world of West Hollywood nightlife.
Below, scenes from BFD by photographer Bradley Roberge.
